Max Verstappen led from pole to flag and completed what is known as a ”Grand Slam” with the fastest lap to deliver a dominant performance and win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Red Bull star took his 67th career victory and 4th of the season, thus postponing his almost dead title hopes very little as he cut the advantage to Oscar Piastri to the championship.
The immediate drama was therefore on the first lap when Piastri who had a qualifying crash and therefore started ninth, jumped the start, thoroughly damaging his car as it hit the wall at Turn 5.
The event was also what ended Piastri’s continuous run of 34 points finishes, while at the same time his advantage over McLaren teammate Lando Norris was reduced to 25 points.
Mercedes had the opportunity of a good afternoon and they took it. Despite his sickness, George Russell managed to come back and take the second position, while Carlos Sainz made sure that Williams had their first podium of the season by getting third. “It even tastes better than my very first podium,” the Spaniard said.
In other points, Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli took fourth after a hard time in Monza, while the Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson made the best of his career with a fifth-place finish.
Yuki Tsunoda was sixth for Red Bull, Norris despite another slow pitstop managed to get seventh, and the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took eighth and ninth respectively. Rookie Isack Hadjar grabbed the tenth spot for Racing Bulls.
