Verstappen reigns supreme in Baku as Piastri crashes out

Max Verstappen dominated the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of George Russell and Carlos Sainz, who made his maiden Williams podium appearance, while championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out of the race on the first lap.

Piastri started the race ninth after an uncharacteristic crash in Q3 left him without a time, but he fell to last by the first turn after jumping the start. In his bid to recover, the Australian clumsily locked up into Turn 5 and rammed into the barriers, instantly ending his race.

It was Piastri’s first failure to finish a race since the 2023 United States Grand Prix almost two years ago, the third-longest classification streak in Formula 1 history.

It was also the second afternoon in succession Piastri had presented an open goal to teammate and title rival Lando Norris to close what had been a 31-point championship gap at the start of the weekend, but for the second afternoon in a row Norris was unable to capitalize. The Englishman started and finished the race seventh to take only six points out of his deficit, which stands at 25 points with seven rounds to go.

After a fast start, Verstappen never faced a challenge from behind. Clive Rose/Getty Images

But the title permutations had no impact on Verstappen’s imperious afternoon at the front of the field. The reigning champion led every lap of the race from pole and set the fastest lap of the afternoon to claim his sixth career grand slam, drawing him equal with Lewis Hamilton and putting him two behind stat leader Jim Clark.

Verstappen's championship deficit stands at 69 points.

“This weekend has been incredible for us,” he said. “For us to win here again is just fantastic.

“The car was working really well on both of the compounds. We had clean air all the time, so you could then look after your tires. It was pretty straightforward. I’m incredibly happy with this performance.”

George Russell finished a distant second, 14.6s off the lead. It was two places up on his starting position, the Briton gaining ground by running deep into the race on his starting set of hard tires to overcut Liam Lawson, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Sainz for the place.

“I’m really happy to be back on the podium,” he said. “The car was great.

“For us as a team trying to beat Ferrari in the constructors', it was a good step towards that.”

The result helped move Mercedes into second place in the constructors championship, four points ahead of Ferrari.

Sainz finished a popular and perfectly executed third. The Spaniard started second and benefited from Lawson behind him holding up the Mercedes drivers through the opening stint, building him a valuable buffer to protect against Antonelli’s undercut.

Russell got him with a longer opening stint, but though Antonelli pressured him in the second stint, Sainz’s newer tires held out in an expertly judged 24-lap run to the checkered flag to take Williams’s first podium finish since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

“I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels,” he said. “It tastes even better than my first-ever podium.

“We’ve been fighting hard all year, and finally today we just proved that when we have the speed – we’ve had it all year – and everything comes together, we can do some amazing things together.

“Today we nailed the race, not one mistake. We managed to beat a lot of cars that yesterday I wasn’t expecting to beat. I’m extremely proud of everyone at Williams.”

When third place feels like a win. Simon Galloway/Getty Images

Antonelli finished a commendable fourth, his best result since June’s Canadian Grand Prix. He finished ahead of Lawson whose fifth was the best result of his grand prix career, after a gutsy drive to defend the place ahead of former teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Tsunoda appeared to have overcut Lawson with his late stop for mediums on lap 38, but the Kiwi, his tires up to temperature, decisively passed him into Turn 3.

The Japanese driver was clearly quicker but couldn’t find a way through the Racing Bulls driver’s defenses and was forced to settle for sixth, the best finish of his season, though his eight points weren’t enough to prevent Red Bull Racing from being eliminated from constructors' championship contention.

Norris finished seventh, where he started, after a slog to recover places he lost early in the race. The Englishman lost a place to Isack Hadjar at the start and was mugged by Charles Leclerc at the safety car restart to run ninth early in the race, and though both he and Leclerc got past Hadjar in short order, the McLaren could make no impression on the Ferrari despite sitting in its DRS for much of the first stint.

In the end McLaren let Ferrari do the strategy work on its behalf. Leclerc stopped first, on lap 19, for fresh hard tires but wasted the new-rubber advantage bottled behind a defensive Lawson.

Norris stayed out until lap 37 and remarkably had a chance to overcut Leclerc, but a slow right-front tire change had him rejoin just behind the Ferrari. The problem was temporary, however, and with 18-lap-newer rubber he was able to blast past Leclerc on lap 41 to resume seventh place.

But with Tsunoda ahead of him benefiting from Lawson’s DRS ahead, that was as far as Norris got, scoring just six points on a rare weekend Piastri failed to score. His paltry score also ensured McLaren could not seal the constructors' championship, with the battle set to continue to the next race in Singapore.

Lewis Hamilton finished eighth ahead of Ferrari teammate Leclerc in a long and losing battle with Norris after both drivers got strong starts, while Hadjar completed the top 10 for Racing Bulls.

Gabriel Bortoelto, Oliver Bearman, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll finished on the lead lap, while Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto finished a lap down in 18th and 19th.

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