Max Verstappen dominated the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a flawless victory, while Oscar Piastri crashed out on the first lap, with Lando Norris only seventh to make a small gain in the title fight.
Verstappen ran largely unopposed as a dramatic qualifying saw Williams man Carlos Sainz and Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson provide a handy buffer between the world champion and his direct rivals from Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari.
But Verstappen’s lightning pace through the streets of Baku showed that even in a straight fight it would have taken some doing to challenge the Dutchman. Starting on hard tyres, Verstappen delayed his only pitstop to mediums to lap 41 of 51 and then crossed the line with a 14-second lead on Mercedes’ George Russell, who recovered from illness to take second.
A buoyant Sainz took the third step on the podium, his first for Williams, as he delivered a faultless drive from second on the grid but was powerless to keep Russell at bay.
One month after Norris’ retirement in Zandvoort, the 2025 title battle between the Briton and McLaren team-mate Piastri saw another swing as the championship leader crashed out on the opening lap.
After a shunt in Q3 which left the Australian championship leader ninth on the grid, Piastri caused a false start and shuffled to the back as he struggled to get up to speed. As Piastri attempted to claw his way back through the field, he locked up on the dirty outside line into Turn 4 and slammed into the barriers at the same scene of his qualifying incident.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
Meanwhile, Verstappen was able to safeguard his lead from Sainz, Lawson and both Mercedes cars, while Norris – who also suffered a poor qualifying session – had dropped one position to eighth after being passed by Isack Hadjar.
On the lap 5 restart Russell was shuffled behind Tsunoda following fierce defending from Mercedes team-mate Antonelli, but soon repassed the Japanese driver. Norris also made a poor restart and was mugged by Leclerc, with the pair then soon making their way past Hadjar.
The race turned into a battle of opposite strategies as medium-starter Sainz was challenged by Russell on hards. Russell received clear air once Sainz pitted on lap 28 and the Briton built enough of a gap to come out ahead of the Spaniard to take over second. But Sainz held off the second Mercedes of Antonelli to claim an emotional maiden Williams podium.
Third-place starter Lawson initially looked to successfully fend off an undercut attempt by Antonelli, but was still picked off by the Italian on the following lap, who then simply drove away from the Racing Bulls driver. Lawson then received the company of Charles Leclerc, who was also on the same medium-to-hard strategy.
Meanwhile, having started on mediums and being stuck behind hard-tyre runner Yuki Tsunoda, Norris delayed his only pitstop until the final quarter. But his undercut attempt failed due to a slow front-right tyre change, with the Briton critically also dropping behind the Lawson-Leclerc battle.
As those two duels converged into an entertaining four-car fight for fifth, Lawson immediately pounced as Tsunoda’s tyres got up to temperature to pass his former team-mate, followed by Leclerc and Norris. Norris got by a fading Ferrari driver for seventh and then hunted down Lawson and Tsunoda in the final 10 laps.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Lawson needed inch perfect Turn 16 exits onto Baku’s mammoth straight to keep Tsunoda and Norris behind, and by holding firm the New Zealander was rewarded with his best-ever grand prix result in fifth. Under-pressure Tsunoda also grabbed a much-needed result in sixth, the Japanese surviving a last-lap attempt from Norris.
Norris’ seventh place, the same position he started from, was a wasted opportunity to capitalise on Piastri’s exit, only closing the gap to his team-mate by six points as the Australian now leads by 25 points.
Hamilton also passed Leclerc to attach his wagon to the Lawson DRS train, but was a spectator as he finished eighth ahead of his Scuderia stablemate – appearing to try but fail to give the place back to Leclerc at the line, having been waved by earlier in the race to attack those ahead.
Hadjar claimed the final point in 10th after losing ground at the start, as other midfield teams struggled to capitalise. Fernando Alonso earned a five-second penalty for following Piastri into a false start, while Alex Albon was handed a 10-second penalty for a clumsy lunge on Franco Colapinto which spun the Alpine driver.
F1 Azerbaijan GP results
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