Azerbaijan GP 2025: Verstappen wins as Piastri crashes on lap one

Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position on the streets of Baku, leading all 51 laps and finishing 14.609 seconds ahead of George Russell's Mercedes. Carlos Sainz took third for Williams. Championship leader Oscar Piastri never completed a lap: he jumped the start, dropped to last and crashed at Turn 5.

How Verstappen controlled Baku

Saturday set it up. Qualifying ran for almost two hours, in gusty wind and spells of light rain, and was stopped by six red flags. Verstappen's final lap beat Sainz by nearly half a second, with Liam Lawson third for Racing Bulls and Kimi Antonelli fourth. Charles Leclerc crashed at Turn 15 in Q3, and Piastri hit the wall at Turn 3.

On Sunday Verstappen started on hard tyres and was never troubled. He controlled the restart after the safety car called for Piastri's crash, pulled clear of Sainz lap by lap and was the last driver to make his mandatory stop, swapping to mediums late on and rejoining comfortably in front. He said afterwards that he had clean air all race and a car that worked on both compounds.

The fight behind him was the better story. Sainz held second for the first half of the race. Mercedes left Russell out on his first set, and the overcut lifted him past Sainz, Lawson and Antonelli, all of whom had started ahead of him. He did it while unwell, having skipped Thursday's media day and been excused from media duties and the drivers' briefing on Friday and Saturday. Sainz then kept Antonelli behind to the flag, giving Williams their first podium since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Alex Albon finished 13th after a 10-second penalty for hitting Franco Colapinto.

The teammate duels in Baku

McLaren. Norris qualified seventh after brushing the wall, two places ahead of Piastri. In the race he was passed by Leclerc at the restart and spent most of the afternoon in a queue. A 4.1-second stop, caused by a problem at the front right, cost him more, and he finished seventh behind Yuki Tsunoda after an attempt around the outside at Turn 1 on the last lap came to nothing. With Piastri out, there is no race verdict in their head-to-head, which stands at 9–8 to Norris in qualifying and 8–8 in races in our count.

Mercedes. Antonelli's fourth place on the grid, one ahead of Russell, was only his second qualifying win over his team-mate this season on F1 Duels. Sunday went the usual way. Mercedes split the strategies, stopping Antonelli early, and the rookie finished fourth, equalling his best result. Russell now leads Antonelli vs Russell 15–2 in qualifying and 13–0 in races.

Racing Bulls. Lawson's third on the grid became fifth at the flag, the best finish of his career. He got back ahead of Tsunoda's Red Bull after the stops and held him off to the end. Isack Hadjar, whose car needed a hydraulic fix before the formation lap, made an early mistake and took the last point in tenth. Lawson won both halves of the weekend, but Hadjar still leads their duel 11–4 on Saturdays and 8–4 on Sundays.

Ferrari. Leclerc's Q3 crash ended his run of four straight Baku poles and left him tenth, two places ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who missed Q3 for the fifth time this year. Hamilton struggled on the hard tyre early in the race, then was waved past a fading Leclerc late on and finished eighth, one place ahead. It is only his third race win over Leclerc in our count: Hamilton vs Leclerc reads 3–12 on Sundays.

What it changes in the championship

Norris scored six points and cut Piastri's lead from 31 to 25, with seven rounds left. Verstappen moved from 94 to 69 points behind Piastri. McLaren could have sealed the constructors' title in Baku and will have to wait. The full set of verdicts is on the Azerbaijan GP duels page.