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.

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.

2025 Azerbaijan GP Results – 51 Laps