Formula1 News: Verstappen dominates 2025 Azerbaijan GP

Defending World Driving Champion Max Verstappen took the lead from pole at the start in his #1 Red Bull, never put a wheel wrong, and led the 2025 Azerbaijan GP Formula 1 race from start to finish around the Baku City Circuit.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

While Verstappen made it look easy up front, beating the Mercedes of George Russell by over 14 seconds, points leader Oscar Piastri crashed his superior McLaren for the 2nd day in a row on lap 1, completing a disasterous weekend.

A dominant win for Max Verstappen! A Grand Chelem for the 4-time world champion, pole position, victory, every lap led, and the fastest lap, at a fiercely contested Azerbaijan Grand Prix! It was Verstappen’s 4th victory of the season and his 67th career Formula 1 victory.

“I think this weekend has been incredible for us,” said a happy Verstappen. “For us to win here again is fantastic. In the race, the car was working well on both compounds. It was pretty straight forward.

“I was happy that there were not too many Safety Cars! For sure, the last two race weekends have ben amazing for us.”

“Congrats to Carlos and Williams, a great result for them,” said Russell.

“A rough weekend for me personally, but glad to be back on the podium. I was pretty relieved to see the checkered flag, to be honest, but I feel a bit better than I did on Friday.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. completed the final podium position for Williams, converting his front-row start into the best finish of the season for the Williams team, 19 seconds behind his former Toro Rosso teammate. What a turnaround Williams has had under James Vowles.

“Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels,” said Sainz. “We have been fighting hard all year, and today we proved that when we have the speed, and everything comes together, we can do some amazing things. We didn’t make one mistake and managed to beat a lot of cars I didn’t expect to beat.

“I’m extremely proud of everyone at Williams. We are the rise, we are [going] in the right direction. We have had a lot of incidents, and now I understand why it had to happen to give me this podium like this.

“A life lesson to keep believing and keep trusting yourself, as sooner or later it all pays off.”

Kimi Antonelli came home fourth in the second Mercedes, almost 20 seconds behind Verstappen.

A great battle for 5th saw #30 Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson just hold off Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc on his tail in 6th through 9th.

Isack Hadjar rounded out the top-10 in the 2nd Racing Bulls, 39 seconds behind Verstappen.

Leclerc was left frustrated after teammate Hamilton failed to hand back a position at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Leclerc was fighting Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda for fifth in the closing stages of the Baku street race until he was passed by McLaren’s Lando Norris. With Leclerc on older hard tires compared to chasing Hamilton on faster mediums, the Monegasque was ordered to let Hamilton pass as the seven-time world champion was in a better position to try and fight the cars ahead.

As is customary in that situation, Hamilton was expected to hand the place back if he was unable to pass Norris, with Leclerc told towards the end of the final lap to prepare for a swap.

“We will swap back at the end of the lap on the main straight if Lewis doesn’t overtake,” Leclerc was told by his race engineer as he entered the final straight. “Lewis will let you by on the main straight.”

Hamilton eventually did slow down, but did so too late for Leclerc to be able to pass him before the finish line, with Leclerc sounding frustrated at his teammate for not pulling off the swap.

“I don’t really care, it’s for an eighth place, so it’s okay, he can enjoy that P8,” Leclerc snapped after his engineer apologized. “It’s just stupid because it’s not fair, but again, I don’t mind, honestly.”

Despite his crash, Piastri still leads the ponts with 324 ahead of Norris with 299 (a gap of 25 – 1 race results) and Verstappen in third with 255 – 69 points behind Piastri. Can he catch him?

McLaren were utterly dominant to start things off after the summer break in Zandvoort. And while they didn’t have an answer to Verstappen in Monza, most expected them to get back to winning ways here.

Instead, they have taken home just six points. Norris could not scythe his way back through the field and finished seventh, while Piastri had what can only be called a shocker.

Verstappen is the man to watch now – Red Bull’s last upgrade package seems to have done the business. Can the Dutchman keep disrupting that intra-team fight for the championship down at McLaren? It looks like he might be a factor with just seven races to go in 2025.

2025 Azerbaijan GP Results: 51 Laps