Verstappen wins F1 Azerbaijan GP while Norris struggles after Piastri crash

Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a dominant run from pole to flag for Red Bull on Sunday, while behind him Oscar Piastri endured an absolute shocker, the world championship leader crashing out on the opening lap. Lando Norris could not take full advantage of his title rival’s misjudgment, however, with the British driver starting and finishing in seventh.

George Russell was second for Mercedes, with Carlos Sainz making the most of a mixed-up grid to take a superb third for Williams, the team’s first podium at a full distance race since the Azerbaijan GP in 2017. Lewis Hamilton made a good comeback to take eighth from 12th on the grid for Ferrari.

Verstappen was serene in front on the streets of Baku, untroubled and giving a demonstration of what a title fight this might have been had Red Bull given him a more consistently competitive car this season. Piastri may consider himself lucky, as what might have been a huge swing in Norris’s favour was averted.

As it was he dropped only six points to Norris and still enjoys a 25-point advantage with seven meetings remaining. The British driver in turn will rue not doing better in qualifying as a start near the front would have likely netted him a hatful of points.

The race was very much a procession, enlivened largely only by the series of errors that ended Piastri’s race within seconds of the lights going out. Verstappen made a good start to hold his lead into turn one, but Piastri had a shocking launch from ninth place. He made a jump-start and reacted to that by stopping the car, which was then mired on the grid, dropping him to last.

Worse was to follow as the Australian, doubtless aware that he had a lot to do, then locked up at turn five and clattered into the wall. It was an extraordinary error from Piastri, who has shown only rare moments of misjudgment this season.

Oscar Piastri climbs out of his car after crashing on the first lap of the F1 Azerbaijan GP. Photograph: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images

He has displayed such calm, control under pressure throughout the year and it was an uncharacteristic sequence of chaotic moments that were costly indeed’; he had made a similar error in qualifying, going in too hot and crashing out. He was left sitting trackside, stony-faced behind the fencing, to watch the race unfold after a weekend to forget in Azerbaijan.

For Verstappen it was one to savour. Red Bull had brought a new floor and an adapted engineering approach to the last round at Monza, where he duly won. The team’s motor sport adviser, Helmut Marko, thought they might have turned a corner, able to compete on more tracks, and this weekend the car demonstrated he may be correct.

McLaren’s team principal, Andrea Stella, has refused to count Verstappen out as a title contender, even though the points gap means he has a slim chance of winning. But Verstappen has closed a 94-point deficit to 69. It is a mountain to climb, yet the world champion and Red Bull may enjoy giving McLaren sweaty palms at the very least.

Norris would have hoped for more, but paid the price for starting in the pack on a track where DRS trains make overtaking difficult. Having lost a place to Charles Leclerc at a safety car restart, he remained stuck behind him in eighth as part of one such train.

McLaren looked for him to go long as an alternative strategy and brought him in on lap 38 to take the hard tyres, hoping for an offset in the final stages with which he might try to make a pass. But a slow stop of more than four seconds, due to a problem fitting the front right, did not help his cause and he emerged again behind Leclerc.

He had fresher tyres with 13 laps to run and, with every place vital, finally passed Leclerc for seventh in lap 41 and headed off after Yuki Tsunoda. However, once more he was stuck in a DRS train behind the Japanese driver and Liam Lawson, both of whom he might have jumped but for that slow stop.

As the laps ticked down, try as he might, Norris could do no more and remained in seventh, while Verstappen took the flag and all the points the British driver so badly needs.

Kimi Antonelli was fourth for Mercedes, Lawson and Isack Hadjar in fifth and 10th for Racing Bulls, Tsunoda sixth for Red Bull and Leclerc ninth for Ferrari.