2025 Azerbaijan GP: Max Verstappen back in the title fight, McLaren make more mistakes, Carlos Sainz takes first Williams podium, and more
Following on from Monza, F1 returned to another high-speed circuit on the streets of Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, September 21.
A record-breaking qualifying session, a shock podium for Williams, and Max Verstappen possibly creeping back into the title fight - the weekend has given F1 fans plenty to discuss.
Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer, Henry Eccles, takes a look at the biggest talking points to come out of the 2025 Azerbaijan GP.
Is Max Verstappen in the title fight?
“A firm YES. Can you write it in capitals?” - McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella’s response to that very question following Saturday’s qualifying.
With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri making costly mistakes, the latter crashing at Turn 3, the duo qualified P7 and P9 respectively - giving Verstappen the perfect opportunity to convert his second consecutive pole position into another win.
Much like the last round at Monza, Verstappen was in a class of his own, blasting into the distance at both the race start, and the safety car restart following championship leader Piastri’s crash on the opening lap.
Fans watching on TV barely saw the Dutchman, such was his dominance, as he crossed the line nearly 15s ahead of George Russell in P2 - a victory that has left F1 fans wondering whether a miraculous title comeback could really be on the cards.
At Monza, Red Bull brought key upgrades to the RB21’s floor, and they seem to have delivered a breakthrough as Verstappen has now comfortably beaten the McLarens on outright pace in the last two rounds.
The four-time world champion has now gained 35 points on Piastri in that time, and was unchallenged by Norris in Baku as the Brit failed to progress through the field and finished P7.
With 199 points still up for grabs across the seven remaining races, and three sprints, the gap between Verstappen and leader Piastri has shrunk to 69, admittedly a tall order even for ‘Super Max.’
“It’s a lot,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.
“Basically, everything needs to go perfect from my side and then a bit of luck from their side I need as well. So it's still very tough.”
He later added: “I don't rely on hope, so I personally don't think about it. I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season - just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can. Then after Abu Dhabi, we'll know.”
Next up for Verstappen is Singapore, a track he has historically struggled with and where McLaren should perform well given their superiority in higher temperatures this season - a win for the Dutchman would surely see some alarm bells go off in Woking.
“Singapore will be the benchmark for where we really stand,” said Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko post-Baku.
“The gap is still big, and it’s not often that a McLaren doesn’t finish the race. But we’ll see. If we’re competitive… maybe we can start dreaming.”
McLaren’s weekend riddled with more mistakes
McLaren were supposed to be crowned Constructors’ champions this weekend, but a calamitous weekend in Baku means that will have to wait until at least Singapore.
Following Piastri’s crash in Q3, it was down to Norris to get the Papaya team onto the front row.
However, a messy final lap saw him graze the wall at Turn 15, and he qualified P7, one second off pole-sitter Verstappen, and just ahead of his team-mate.
Norris’ main title rival Piastri ought to have been relieved the Brit did not take advantage of his poor qualifying, but just around the corner was a disastrous race start on Sunday.
The Aussie dropped to the very back of the grid following a jump start, and then locked up at Turn 5 to go straight into the wall and out of the race, leaving Norris with the task of saving the day once again.
“Certainly not my finest moment,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1.
“I just anticipated the start too much, and it was a silly, simple error with that. Then, the crash - I just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. I clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.
“The grip level was low, but I should have known that. I’m certainly not blaming it on anything other than myself, I just didn’t make the judgement calls that I needed to at the right time, and that’s obviously disappointing.”
Meanwhile, Norris went nowhere, getting stuck in a DRS train for most of the race, suffering a slow 4.1s pit stop, and finishing exactly where he started in P7.
Taking just six points off his team-mate’s championship lead, many viewed Norris’ poor qualifying and difficult race as a missed opportunity, but the 25-year-old saw things a bit differently.
“I did everything I can. The opportunities were there. I maximise every single weekend like I can. It’s not a missed opportunity. Every race is an opportunity. Today we just weren’t good enough and made too many mistakes yesterday.”
“If I could go back to yesterday and change some things I certainly would, but we’re doing the best we can every weekend. It’s hard to be perfect in the world of F1. I’m trying to work on things.
“Could I have done some things better? Yeah. But it’s not without trying or doing everything I can. I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing, always trying to do better.”
Carlos Sainz’s first ‘Smooth Operation’ at Williams
Prior to Baku, Carlos Sainz’s start to life at Williams had been a mixed bag to say the least.
The Spaniard was down in P18 in the Drivers’ standings, 54 points behind team-mate Alex Albon, and without a single point in the last six races.
But the underlying performance has always been there, the gap between Albon and Sainz in qualifying is among the smallest between team-mates this year, with an average of just 0.061s in Albon’s favour - closer than the one between Norris and Piastri.
Bad luck on Sundays, whether it be technical issues, collisions or penalties, has prevented Sainz from converting promise into points.
At Baku, however, the former Ferrari driver delivered in a big way.
On Saturday, taking advantage of a chaotic qualifying session which saw a record six red flags, including crashes to Piastri and Charles Leclerc, Sainz shocked the world when he qualified on the front row next to Verstappen.
When asked what his goal from there was, the Spaniard said he was going for a podium place, a target that still seemed a tad unrealistic even if the long straights of Azerbaijan’s capital suited the Williams.
But on Sunday, despite losing a place thanks to a well-executed pit strategy from George Russell, Sainz genuinely kept the pace and made sure he was on the podium come the chequered flag, a remarkable achievement that has vindicated his move to the Grove team.
Sainz said post-race: “Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am or how good this feels. It tastes even better than the first-ever podium that I did.
“We’ve been fighting hard all year and finally today we just proved that when we have the speed, we’ve had it all year, and when everything comes together, we can do some amazing things together.”
Team Principal James Vowles praised F1’s ‘Smooth Operator’ for “driving his socks off all weekend.”
Vowles added: “I’ve wanted him to have a great result like this since the beginning of the year. You could see it was on the cards, it just never came together for one reason or another.
“This suddenly builds your confidence and momentum and allows you to step forward - that’s what I wanted for Carlos.
“I think he definitely needed it. We all needed it as a team, though. It just shows to the world that this is absolutely where we are and this is the journey we’re on together.
With the 15-point haul in Baku, Sainz has climbed to P12 in the Drivers’ standings with 31 points, still a long way off his team-mate Albon (70), but surely with so much more confidence to narrow that gap further by the end of the year.
Another false dawn at Ferrari?
Once again this season, Ferrari started the weekend on a positive note, only for it all to unravel by the end of the Grand Prix.
Both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton impressed during practice, the former finished P2 and P3 in the two opening sessions, while the latter topped the timing charts in FP2.
Ferrari would have also been encouraged by the fact Leclerc had achieved pole position in each of the last four races at Baku, but qualifying was where it all started to go wrong for the Scuderia.
An off at Turn 1 for Leclerc brought out the yellow flags in Q2, which compromised Hamilton’s run on the soft tyres, a strategy the seven-time world champion criticised after qualifying.
By the time Hamilton got a lap in, his tyres were spent, and so he had to start the race in P12.
While Leclerc did progress to Q3, he ended up lining up just two places ahead of his team-mate after a crash at Turn 15 left him timeless in the final part of qualifying.
During the race, while both Hamilton and Leclerc finished in the points, P8 and P9 respectively, and fought with McLaren’s Norris, progress was minimal throughout.
The team also suffered a mix-up at the end of the race, with Hamilton failing to slow down enough to let Leclerc through, as the Monegasque had for him earlier on in the race.
Leclerc said post-race: “We've got to react. It's not been a strong weekend at all.”
“We have some explanations, first is probably the approach that I've had on the set-up, which hasn't been the right one. Second, I think our car is struggling whenever it's cool and it's been quite cold since yesterday and that made us struggle.
"But I think the main reason, and I am the first one responsible [for] that, is the mistake in qualifying. When you start P10, it's very difficult to change the situation.”
Hamilton was pleased to get into the points but shared his team-mate’s thoughts that the damage was done in qualifying.
He said: “I think our ultimate pace was not great in the race and I think I lost a lot of ground in the first stint, particularly on the hard tyre compared to the guys on the mediums. I came back towards the end but I think overall the pace was not really great and qualifying clearly is key.
"I think it just shows that qualifying is everything, we didn't operate perfectly yesterday so we've got some work to do but we'll take it internally and try to improve."
The result means Ferrari have lost P2 in the Constructors’ standings to Mercedes, who had a much more positive weekend.
ALSO ON SNB: Premier League news: Five things we learned from Gameweek five
George Russell battles illness to take P2, and Kimi Antonelli bounces back from criticism
Having missed media duties and driver briefings in the days prior to the race thanks to a respiratory virus, Mercedes’ Russell delivered an excellent performance to take Mercedes’ first podium since Hungary.
The 27-year-old started P5 and even lost out to Yuki Tsunoda during the early Safety Car restart, but quickly regained his place.
The former Williams driver then opted to stay out on his hard tyres, trusting an impressive pace that saw him leapfrog Antonelli, Liam Lawson and Sainz into P2.
Russell reflected: “It was a really strong race. Mainly just staying out of trouble. I don’t think we did anything spectacular; it’s just a lot of people made a lot of mistakes this weekend, between qualifying and the race.
“In normal circumstances, we’d expect to finish ahead of Carlos, but he drove an amazing race, and I had to try and bring my A-game to finish ahead of him.”
On the other side of the garage, Antonelli achieved his best result since his P3 finish at the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing in the points in back-to-back races for the first time since Miami.
It was a result the Italian rookie needed, after he was criticised publicly by team boss Toto Wolff for the first time following a disappointing home race at Monza.
“It was a much better race compared to Monza,” he said.
“It’s a bit disappointing still, because I was really hoping for the podium and I was so close. I tried to get close to Carlos and eventually almost got into DRS, but then with the dirty air, I started to struggle a little bit.
“But still, a decent result, especially for the team. We gained a lot of points on Ferrari, so that is definitely a positive, and now we move forward.”
Next up for F1 is the iconic night race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, home of the Singapore GP, on the weekend of October 3-5.
The race gets underway on Sunday, October 5, at 1pm UK time, with fans able to catch all the action live on Sky Sports F1.
READ NEXT: Premier League news: Aston Villa break scoring drought in Sunderland draw but problems persist
