Azerbaijan Grand Prix Review

We went racing in the streets of Baku today as Max Verstappen brought the race home from pole with a lead of 14 seconds, while Carlos Sainz pulled a smooth operation for his first podium in the Williams.

It was top step for Max Verstappen leading all 51 laps of the race with ease as Geroge Russell and Mercedes capitalised on tyre strategy to bring a P2 home, but the real hero and driver of the day is Carlos Sainz, who after a great qualifying, held onto the podium places for a podium that ‘felt better than my first’ according to the Spaniard.

A tough day for the team dressed in papaya after an early incident caused the championship leader to end his race on lap 1. Oscar Piastri jumped the start light and held back to make up for it, forcing him to the back of the field, and while fighting for the positions back, he locked up and shunted the car into the barriers. While this gave the other McLaren car an advantage to gain some points, Lando only took 6 home.

The jump start for Oscar ruined his race, but Fernando Alonso also felt the sting, given a 5-second time penalty for moving before the start lights after reacting to car 81 lined up in front of him. After strong racing, Fernando crossed the line in P15.

By lap 17, there was more drama as Alex Albon clipped the rear tyre of Franco Colapinto, causing the Alpine to spin. This didn’t completely ruin their races, but did cause flat spots on Franco’s tyres and damage to Alex’s front wing, and a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

Ferrari had shown strong signs all weekend through the free practice sessions, but after a disappointing qualifying with Hamilton knocked out of Q2 and a Q3 crash from Leclerc, the Scuderia had their challenges set up for them before the lights even lit up. Despite this, they used the advantage of McLaren’s poor start to keep in contention for the constructors' championship with Lewis coming in P8 and Charles in P9.

Lando’s strategy team pitted him at the perfect time to undercut the cars in front, but a 4.1-second pit stop denied him any advantage, coming out behind Leclerc, and his race became once again one of on-track battles rather than overtakes through the pit lane.

Lawson put in a great race today. The Kiwi started his race by holding off the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli until lap 21, where Lawson pulled into the pit stop and came out into the claws of Antonelli. Even on colder tyres, he managed to keep his position but was inevitably overtaken a lap later, and Kimi’s race ended in P4. The next stint was defending P5 from Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris. He was the start of a DRS train and, despite not having the extra advantage of DRS, took the chequered flag in P5. Although Lando tried a move on Yuki on the last lap, he couldn’t get around the Red Bull. Tsunoda came home, P6, and Norris, P7.

After 51 laps, the emotions were high in the Williams garage as Carlos celebrated over the radio, stating it was the ‘best podium of my career’, and the taste of champagne was a sweet one as he stood on the podium before Lewis Hamilton did in the Ferrari. Max Verstappen drove a race that felt like the 2023 dominance we all remember, proving that he is still in contention for a 5th championship.