@Max33Verstappen cruises to dominant #AzerbaijanGP victory as @OscarPiastri crashes. #F1
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB21, celebrates in Parc Ferme after scoring his 67th-career victory at the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2025, Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Verstappen Azerbaijan GP Victory, 2025 Azerbaijan GP, Azerbaijan GP Race Results, F1 Azerbaijan GP Results, Formula 1 Baku Results.
Verstappen Azerbaijan GP Victory – Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant Azerbaijan GP victory ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell who took second and Carlos Sainz who scored his first podium for Williams. Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out on the opening lap after a horrific start as his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris came home seventh to cut the Australian’s advantage in the World Drivers’ Championship standings.
This was Verstappen’s 67th-career victory as the Dutchman lead a flawless drive from beginning-to-end whilst the situation in the Constructor’s Championship – McLaren’s title celebrations were put on ice after today’s Grand Prix and will most likely be wrapped up in Singapore next time round.
In terms of the World Driver’s Championship, Piastri holds a 25-point advantage over Norris (324-299) as they head to Marina Bay in a fortnight.
When the 51 lap Azerbaijan GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen got a great start into turn one covering Sainz as further behind them championship leader Piastri had a poor start falling to the back of the pack.
Mercedes’ George Russell made a late dive up the inside of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda at turn three whilst Piastri suffered a heavy crash after suffering a front-left lock-up and went straight into the wall at turn five bringing out the safety car.
Both MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Alexander Albon both took the opportunity to pit for a set of the C5 yellow-branded mediums.
The top ten order under the safety car was as follows: Verstappen, Sainz, Lawson, Antonelli, Russell, Tsunoda, Hadjar, Norris, Leclerc, Hamilton.
Replays showed Piastri jumped the start and the Australian immediately stopped and then everyone went past as he restarted his procedures. Then crashed at turn five.
The McLaren driver also suffered anti-stall whilst on the grid as the cars flew past into the opening corner.
Ocon pitted a second time to put on another set of the C3 white-branded harder tyres.
Further replays showed contact between Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Ocon.
Stewards noted the jump starts for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who was up to 11th and also Piastri.
When the safety car came in to begin the fifth tour, race leader Verstappen waited right until the safety car line to get a brilliant run to turn one, getting a good gap between him and Sainz.
Behind them Russell got it horribly wrong and dropped back behind Tsunoda in sixth place after the former has a brief fight with team-mate Antonelli.
Leclerc also made his way ahead of Norris to move up to seventh as Alonso was hit with a five grid-placed-penalty for his jump start.
Lap six saw Verstappen’s lead at 1.280 seconds over Sainz with Lawson third, Antonelli fourth, Tsunoda fifth, Russell sixth, Leclerc seventh, Norris moved up into eighth passing Hadjar around the outside into the opening corner as the Frenchman managed to cover Hamilton to keep the other Ferrari in tenth.
On the seventh tour – Verstappen lead increased to 1.5 seconds, with Sainz having Lawson and Antonelli in DRS range for company behind. Behind Tsunoda is holding up a frustrated Russell, who was weaving and trying to find a way past the RB21. Leclerc had two seconds to get to the back of that fight, as Hadjar continued to somehow hold up his childhood hero Hamilton in the SF-25.
Lap eight – Sun and cloud were overhead, no sign of any rain just yet at this stage of proceedings. But there was more than enough jeopardy on the track. Verstappen could not pull a bigger gap on Sainz, in fact the Williams man had pulled back a couple of tenths on the Dutchman. Hamilton then made his way ahead of Hadjar to move up into ninth place.
On lap nine – Tsunoda was holding up Russell beautifully and had not put a foot wrong in defence of the Mercedes. But this was allowing the front four to getaway.
Verstappen set a new fastest lap to pull back a few tenths on the Spaniard, but Sainz was still holding Lawson at bay himself.
Lap 10 in the battle for fifth, Russell with DRS assistance made a move around the outside of Tsunoda to reclaim the place from the Japanese driver.
Out-front, Verstappen’s gap to Sainz on the 11th lap was at 2.4 seconds with Lawson holding third, Antonelli and Russell fourth and fifth respectively, Tsunoda sixth, Leclerc seventh, Norris eighth, Hamilton ninth whilst Hadjar rounded out the top ten as the teams were reporting the rain could hit in 20 minutes.
On the 13th lap, gaps were starting to form on track – there was a small gap behind tenth-placed Hadjar, and also behind Alonso with Colapinto holding up a train of back markers.
The gap behind Alonso was not far off the pit stop window for Verstappen at this stage of proceedings.
The current situation on lap 14 for championship contender Norris – was how much can he dent into his team-mate’s championship lead today? P8 is only worth four points, and that is not enough.
Piastri’s lead was 31-points so he will remain in the Championship lead regardless today, but Norris had been presented a golden chance today to really steal some points back on the Australian.
Lap 15 – with a view to getting a pit window, Verstappen continued to charge and now had a 3.9 second lead over second-placed Sainz, who was doing very well on those used C5 medium compounds.
Behind Lawson, the Mercedes boys were starting to squabble – will Russell start calling to be let through and passed the Italian? Both were in the DRS range of the VCARB02.
On the 16th lap – in the battle for the final podium place – Lawson was looking good so far, but could not break away from Antonelli, but nor has he given him a chance. Russell was there too, so could Mercedes pull off a trick.
Albon pitted again for hards – which should see the Thai-Briton driver through to the end providing no safety cars etc.
The 17th tour – Russell was pushing for a swap with Antonelli, but Mercedes were yet to confirm or commit to it. So Antonelli remained fourth ahead of his team-mate, both were in DRS range of Lawson and the final podium place up for grabs.
Behind them, Hamilton had just had to save a sliding moment, coming so very close to the walls.
And even further back, Albon and Colapinto have come together and sent the Alpine into a spin.
On lap 19, Antonelli pitted from fourth for a fresh set of C4 hards to allow Russell to attack Tsunoda and the Italian came out in 12th place behind Alonso.
Lap 20 saw Leclerc pit from sixth to get out of the Tsunoda train for his new set of hards to emerge in 11th place behind Antonelli.
Albon was given a 10-second time penalty for his collision with Colapinto.
Lawson stopped from third for his fresh set of hards as it released Russell into the position and the RB driver came out just in-front of Antonelli in tenth place to hold that net third place once the cycle of pit-stops come through.
Lawson kept weaving to try and get temperature into those harder compounds and managed to keep the Mercedes at bay into turn three.
On lap 22, Antonelli then made his way ahead of Hadjar to move up into ninth place with DRS.
The 23rd tour – plenty was going on behind, but up-front, race leader Verstappen had led this one from the beginning. The reigning world champion built a 6.7 second lead over Sainz, who had been running a very solid race in second place. Sainz was on C5 medium rubber as well, so was running well to keep his tyres going at this stage.
Russell was 4.1 seconds back in third, in-front of Tsunoda, Norris and Hamilton.
On lap 24 – Alonso had served his five-second time penalty for his jump start and pitted for hards and was down in 18th behind Albon, who was yet to serve his 10-second time penalty at this stage.
Antonelli in ninth was the first car on track to have pitted, ahead of Lawson and Leclerc.
The situation with Sainz on lap 25 – the Spaniard in second could either run long and try to have a tyre offset later on, or pit sooner to avoid the undercut risk with Antonelli behind having already stopped. Russell behind was closing in, and there was still the risk of rain.
At the halfway point of the Grand Prix, Verstappen’s gap to Sainz was at 8.424 seconds with Russell third, Tsunoda fourth, Norris fifth, Hamilton sixth, Hadjar seventh as Antonelli picked off Bortoleto for eighth whilst Lawson completed the top ten runners.
Bortoleto on the 27th lap stopped from ninth and emerged in 16th place behind Gasly as the Brazilian bolted on a set of C5’s on his C45 entry.
A tour later, Sainz pitted from second for his fresh set of C4’s and came out in sixth place behind Hamilton and crucially ahead of Hadjar and Antonelli with his 2.6 second stop – with the top five runners still yet to stop as the teams were watching the weather closely.
On lap 29 – Three of the hard-running starters were in the top three at this stage. Verstappen’s gap out front was 12 seconds over Russell, with Tsunoda having a strong race in third. They all still need to pit.
Norris was up to fourth on his C5 mediums, in-front of Hamilton who had Sainz six seconds behind as now the lead car to have pitted.
Hadjar then came in on lap 30 from seventh to put his fresh set of C4 harder rubber to be in ninth place behind Leclerc.
On lap 31 – Verstappen in the lead, Russell, Tsunoda, Norris and Hamilton have all yet to stop. All but Norris were on the harder tyres.
No sign of the rain at this stage, as Russell reported to the team on the radio to say his tyres felt good and they should “just keep extending.” the team agreed with the Briton.
Lap 32 – Verstappen was in total control at this stage, but the podium spots were up for grabs. Sainz lead Antonelli by 3.5 seconds with an offset, so the Spaniard was looking good.
But it was all going to depend on how long Russell and Norris could extend their stints, and how much pace they’ll have at the end. And Tsunoda could not be discounted also.
On the 33rd tour – Verstappen still held the lead and there was no signs of any pit stops for the top five at this stage, with the drivers potentially extending for when the rain might arrive,
Lap 34 – Norris was the only front runner on the mediums – they were a fresh set. But the McLaren driver could not find a way past Tsunoda and had fallen 1.7 seconds behind the Red Bull driver.
Fourth would be 12 points, which would be handy in the Championship fight with team-mate Piastri.
On the 35th lap – Leclerc was pushing on in the fight for eighth and had DRS in his battle with Lawson, but he could not find a way past the VCARB02. Lawson was now 5.7 seconds back on Antonelli, so that podium does look to have disappeared up the road for the Kiwi.
And Sainz’s pace was genuine, as Antonelli had not really closed the gap on the Williams driver.
On lap 37 – Hamilton stopped from sixth for his fresh set of mediums and emerged in ninth behind team-mate Leclerc.
Lap 38 – fourth-placed Norris was told to box and when he came in – the Briton suffered a slow 4.1 second pit-stop for his fresh set of hards and came out behind both Lawson and Leclerc in eighth place.
A tour later – Tsunoda pitted from third for his new set of the C5’s and came out just ahead of Lawson and on the run-down to turn three Lawson made his way ahead of the Japanese driver to take fifth place.
On the 40th lap – Russell boxed for his set of the medium rubber and came out 1.975 seconds ahead of Sainz to remain in second as further behind them Leclerc managed to keep a charging Norris behind into turn one to hold seventh.
Lap 41 – race leader Verstappen finally pitted for his fresh set of the C5’s to keep his solid lead and in the battle for seventh – Norris with DRS on the main-straight and fresher rubber made his way past Leclerc to take the position from the Ferrari.
Albon reported on the radio light rain at turn 16 on the 42nd lap.
On lap 43 – Hamilton switched positions with Leclerc to try and catch up to the Lawson, Tsunoda and Norris train up ahead.
Lap 44 – Russell was now in Sainz’s race. This was all about holding Antonelli at bay. The gap was sitting at 1.4 seconds, and Sainz’s tyres were nine laps fresher. Both were on the harder compounds.
Further back, a DRS train was forming behind Lawson – who did well in the early stages to hold some faster cars behind and needs to do the same to hold onto a season-best fifth.
On lap 45 – Tsunoda had a close look on Lawson into turn one, but the former covered the latter whilst out-front – Verstappen posted another fastest lap on his medium tyres, and he was cruising.
With five laps remaining – Verstappen’s lead over Russell was 14.137 seconds with Sainz holding third, Antonelli fourth, Lawson fifth, Tsunoda sixth, Norris seventh, Hamilton eighth, Leclerc ninth as Hadjar completed the top ten.
The weather was holding off – for now at this stage. And Hamilton was in DRS range. This was now a four-car fight for fifth place. Lawson from Tsunoda (those two fighting for their F1 futures), Norris fighting for the Championship and Hamilton battling for form.
On lap 48 – Sainz was still holding Antonelli at bay and only had four more laps to survive. Verstappen and Russell have cleared away.
Lawson still managed a good first corner, and a good exit. He had no DRS and yet was defending brilliantly.
With three laps remaining – Lawson again made it through the first four corners ahead of his little train of cars to keep a-hold of fifth place.
Verstappen crossed the line on the penultimate lap, 13.4 seconds in-front of Russell, and had likely turned his engine down and was heading for a second straight victory following his success in Monza last-time out. This would be his second win at this circuit, after his triumph in 2022.
Sainz was 1.7 seconds ahead of Antonelli whilst again, Lawson held on.
Verstappen reached the chequered flag to take his seventh-victory of the season 14.609 seconds clear of Russell as Sainz completed the top three in his first podium for Williams.
Antonelli finished fourth and ahead of Lawson who took fifth and Tsunoda who placed sixth in the classification.
Championship contender Norris was seventh and in-front of Ferrari duo Hamilton and Leclerc who ended the race eighth and ninth respectively whilst Hadjar rounded out the top ten.
2025 Azerbaijan GP – The Top Three
2025 Azerbaijan GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB21 – (25 Points):
“I think this weekend has been incredible for us. 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 been amazing for us.”
2nd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W16 – +14.609s – (18 Points):
“Congrats to Carlos and Williams, a great result for them. A rough weekend for me personally, but glad to be back on the podium. I was pretty relieved to see the chequered flag to be honest, but I feel a bit better than I did on Friday.”
3rd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Atlassian Williams Racing, Mercedes, FW47 – +19.199s – (15 Points):
“Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels. We have been fighting hard all year and today we proved 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.”
Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2025 Race Results Classification (51 Laps)
| POS. | NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | LAPS | TIME / RETIRED | PTS. |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 51 | 1:33:26.408 | 25 |
| 2 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 51 | +14.609s | 18 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 51 | +19.199s | 15 |
| 4 | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 51 | +21.760s | 12 |
| 5 | 30 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 51 | +33.290s | 10 |
| 6 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull Racing | 51 | +33.808s | 8 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 51 | +34.227s | 6 |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 51 | +36.310s | 4 |
| 9 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 51 | +36.774s | 2 |
| 10 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 51 | +38.982s | 1 |
| 11 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Kick Sauber | 51 | +67.606s | |
| 12 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 51 | +68.262s | |
| 13 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 51 | +72.870s | |
| 14 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 51 | +77.580s | |
| 15 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 51 | +78.707s | |
| 16 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Kick Sauber | 51 | +80.237s | |
| 17 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 51 | +96.392s | |
| 18 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 50 | +1 lap | |
| 19 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 50 | +1 lap | |
| NC | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 0 | DNF | |
| * Provisional results. | ||||||
FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2025 – RACE RESULT
Click here for the 2025 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructor’s Championship Standings
Round 18 of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Marina Bay Street Circuit under the lights for the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2025 from Friday October 3-Sunday October 5.
