Azerbaijan GP

The Azerbaijan GP weekend saw more action in qualifying than in an unusually subdued race. However the result put an intriguing twist on the World Championship battle as McLaren faltered and Red Bull scored a second straight win – and Max Verstappen put himself into distant contention for the title.

Strong wind and spots of rain made for tricky conditions in qualifying at a track where there is little margin for error, and the session was stopped six times for incidents.

One of them involved championship leader Oscar Piastri, who was consigned to ninth on the grid after crashing out. His only consolation was that McLaren team mate and title rival Lando Norris was only seventh after running first on a track that had just a hint of dampness.

The assumption was that both men would make decent progress in the race, but it didn’t happen. The usually unflappable Piastri fluffed his start and then crashed on the first lap as he tried to recover from last place. Norris then got stuck behind other cars and ultimately finished where he started in P7, thus losing the chance to make a big dent in Piastri’s lead.

It’s impossible for even the most competitive teams to get it just right 24 times a season, and McLaren knew that Baku would be a tough one. Nevertheless this was a below par performance all round. Was Piastri’s run of mistakes a sign of the pressure of the title fight, or just one of those off weekends that even the greats suffer from time to time? McLaren boss Andrea Stella insisted it was the latter.

Inevitably it was Verstappen and Red Bull who took advantage. Having triumphed in Monza the Dutchman was on great form, taking pole and then scoring a dominant win after not putting a foot wrong all weekend. Team mate Yuki Tsunoda had his best race of the season to take sixth place, a further sign that the car was dialled into this particular track.

Clearly the team has some momentum after two straight victories, but these were also two low drag tracks that played to the strengths of the package, and it remains to be seen how that will translate at high downforce Singapore. Verstappen is now just 69 points off Piastri – and with 199 still on the table, including the three sprint events, he is still there and making life uncomfortable for McLaren.

Mercedes ultimately led the chase of Red Bull as not just McLaren but also Ferrari faltered. George Russell was ill earlier in the weekend and he almost skipped first practice. Ducking media commitments and even missing the drivers’ briefing, he qualified a solid fifth, just behind team mate Kimi Antonelli. In the race he worked his way past three cars ahead to secure a solid second.

The Italian, called “underwhelming” by team boss Toto Wolff after Monza, had an impressive weekend. He started and finished fourth after a faultless performance at this tricky track, helped by the team honing the way it prepares him for each event in the factory sim.

It was a great weekend for Carlos Sainz and Williams. Overshadowed by team mate Alex Albon for much of the season, the Spaniard qualified a superb second. It was always going to be a question of how successfully he could fight off quicker cars, and in the end only Russell got by, demoting him to third – and that still represented the first podium of the James Vowles era. Albon had an unusually scrappy weekend, hitting the barrier in qualifying and then colliding with Franco Colapinto in the race.

Racing Bulls also had a strong weekend, with Liam Lawson qualifying a superb third and then hanging on to finish fifth after both Mercedes drivers got by him. He spent the last part of the race fending off Tsunoda, his rival for a seat in 2026, which added an extra dimension to their battle. Zandvoort podium star Isack Hadjar was less happy, making a mistake in qualifying and another in the race and earning only 10th on a day when he felt he should have done much better.

The Frenchman finished behind the two Ferraris as the Maranello team had a below par weekend at a track where Charles Leclerc had earned four consecutive poles. The red car looked good on Friday when Lewis Hamilton was fastest, but things fell apart in qualifying with Leclerc earning 10thafter crashing, and Hamilton only 12th.

In the race they were on different strategies and swapped places to allow Hamilton to attack those ahead, and when that didn’t work they were supposed to swap places at the end. Hamilton did indeed slow but misjudged it and just held on to eighth place as Leclerc crossed him beyond the finish line. That created something of a storm among Ferrari fans, but was a genuine mistake by Hamilton, who was generally upbeat about progress, despite the modest result.

Of the rest rookie Gabriel Bortoleto had another solid weekend for Sauber and finished 11th, while his team mate Nico Hulkenberg was less happy as he took 16th after an early collision with Esteban Ocon. For Haas, Aston and Alpine it was a weekend of frustration, especially as midfield rivals Williams and Racing Bulls scored so well.

Off–track speculation about the 2026 Red Bull line-up continues, with Isack Hadjar now looking certain to graduate to the main team, and Lawson, Tsunoda and F2 star Arvin Lindblad the contenders at Racing Bulls. While the last-named has some momentum, Red Bull folk are divided on whether he is ready to step up.

The second Alpine seat remains the other big talking point, with Paul Aron the obvious candidate to oust incumbent Colapinto, who didn’t help himself with a qualifying crash in Baku.

Meanwhile F1 announced during the weekend that Azerbaijan will be on the calendar until 2030. With Monaco recently extended to 2035 more and more races are being locked in for the long term, and opportunities for new venues to join will be few and far between.