Verstappen wins in Baku after Piastri crashes out

McLaren’s Lando Norris reduced team-mate Oscar Piastri’s championship lead to 25 points by finishing seventh in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the Australian crashed out on the first lap.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a dominant victory to underline McLaren’s fears that he could become a title contender – even if he is still 69 points behind Piastri with seven races to go.

But Piastri’s first big mistake of the season was not as costly as it could have been, because main rival Norris was unable to make any ground from his seventh position on the grid.

Norris became stuck behind other cars and could gain just six points on Piastri.

McLaren tried an offset strategy with a late pit stop in the attempt to give Norris a tyre advantage in the closing laps.

But Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson held off Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, Norris and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, all running nose to tail for the final 10 laps, none able to make progress.

Mercedes’ George Russell drove an excellent race, on the same strategy as Verstappen, to move up from fifth to second, while Carlos Sainz hung on in third after starting second for Williams’ first podium since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

The main stories of the race were:

McLaren came into the weekend on the verge of clinching the constructors’ title, but they will have to wait at least another race after a difficult weekend in Baku.

Piastri, 31 points clear in the drivers’ championship heading into the weekend, crashed out of both qualifying and race in an uncharacteristically scrappy weekend.

The Australian’s grand prix unravelled even before the lights went out as he jumped the start and had to stop again before getting under way.

That dropped him to the back of the field into the first corner and his race came to an end just five corners later.

He tried to go for an ambitious move around the outside of Esteban Ocon’s Haas, but found no grip and slid straight on into the barrier.

Norris should have been able to capitalise, but the Briton himself lost a place on the first lap to Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, the start of a frustrating race.

Norris soon passed the Frenchman, but he spent the first part of the race stuck behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

McLaren extended his first stint, leaving his pit stop as late as possible, in an attempt to give him a tyre offset on those ahead.

But a problem with the right-front wheel gun cost him two seconds, giving him a second slow pit stop in a row after the dramas of Monza.

That cost him what was anyway a slim hope of jumping ahead of Lawson and Tsunoda, and he rejoined the race two seconds behind them.

He closed up quickly on to the back of the Red Bull, but Tsunoda was unable to pass Lawson despite his fresher tyres.

The New Zealander drove an outstanding defensive race, holding faster cars at bay throughout after his strong qualifying session put him third on the grid. So Norris became stuck in a DRS train and could not pass Tsunoda.

Verstappen was in total control of the race from the start, as was expected with slower cars between him and his main rivals McLaren.

He measured his pace early on, protecting the hard tyres he had chosen for a long first stint, and managed the race to perfection, taking fastest lap into the bargain along with his fourth win of the season, only one fewer than Norris.

Red Bull felt they had made a breakthrough with their car at the previous race in Italy, with a new floor opening up a better balance than they had had for a year.

It remains to be proven on a variety of circuit types – Baku is not dissimilar to Monza with its combination of long straights and slow corners – but it is certainly a warning shot across McLaren’s bows, even if their advantage remains sizeable.

“This weekend has been incredible for us,” Verstappen said. “The car was working beautifully.”

Asked whether his form could continue, he said: “Difficult to say at the moment but the last two weekends have been amazing for us, Singapore a different challenge again with the high downforce and we’ll see what we can do there.”

Russell, who has been poorly all weekend, drove an outstanding race to jump ahead of his team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who led him in the first stint, with his different strategy of running long on the hard tyres before switching to the mediums.

And Sainz consolidated his excellent qualifying performance with a strong race to take the final podium place, confirming the progress Williams have made this season.

Russell said: “Congrats to Carlos and Williams – amazing result for them. For us. we’re happy to be back on the podium. It’s been a bit of a rough weekend for me personally but the car was great, so happy with that.

“I was pretty glad when I saw the chequered flag. Fortunately, I felt much better than I did on Friday and Saturday. Looking forward to a bit of rest now.”

Sainz, who joined Williams this year after being replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari, said: “Honestly can’t describe how happy I am and how good this feels. It’s even better than my first ever podium that I had.

“Everything comes together and we can do some amazing things together and today we nailed the race, not one mistake, and we managed to beat a lot of cars that yesterday I wasn’t expecting to beat.”

Antonelli took fourth after the sort of clean weekend his team boss Toto Wolff had asked him for after a difficult period, while Hamilton took eighth, the last car in the train behind Lawson.

Ferrari ordered Leclerc to let the seven-time champion by in the closing stages because Hamilton had much fresher tyres, while Hadjar took the final point for Racing Bulls.

Hamilton was asked to return the favour on the last lap because he had not made any progress. But he misjudged it, in the context of a late request from his engineer, and although he braked on the straight, he crossed the line 0.4secs ahead of Leclerc.

Hamilton apologised afterwards, but Leclerc said he didn’t care about eighth or ninth place, that the bigger concern was Ferrari’s lack of pace.

It’s the original Formula 1 night race in two weeks with the Singapore Grand Prix on the streets of Marina Bay, from 3-5 October.