Racing on the Streets of Baku: McLarens battling a tough weekend, while Verstappen succeeds adding another win to his list.

With a qualifying session that had resulted in about 6 red flag situations, and a race that had an unexpected driver out early, we knew Baku might have something up its sleeve.

Top 10 Qualifying:

This session was not the result that many of these drivers wanted including the world championship leader Oscar Piastri with a DNF from the Q3 session. Starting from P9, he was going to have to put in lots of work if he stood a chance. His teammate Lando Norris had a bad qualifying as well only managing P7, whilst the Ferrari pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc only managed P12 and P10 with Leclerc also crashing in qualifying.

Charles Leclerc with another tough qualifying session in Azerbaijan finding the same wall as in previous years.

Max Verstappen was the big winner in qualifying starting on pole and alongside him, Carlos Sainz in the Williams after putting an important banker lap, to ensure a spot in case of a situation in the session. Liam Lawson also put an important lap on the board in Q3 securing P3 for the race start. Another difficult pill to swallow for Haas as Esteban Ocon was disqualified post qualifying after failing a rear wing check.

The very unexpected top 3 result in Azerbaijan- Liam Lawson P3, Carlos Sainz P2 and Max Verstappen P1.

Race:

The race itself was interesting with very little overtaking points; you needed to be faster and closer to your opponents to gain on them. During the race start, championship contender, Oscar Piastri jumped the race start due to anti stall multiple times. He dropped to last very quick, before unfortunately finding the wall at turn 5. It was a result that nobody thought would have happened and was shocking to see. He was okay and spent the remainder of the race watching from turn 5.

Oscar Piastri with an early out at turn 5 due to a crash in Baku.

Your race winner on the day was Max Verstappen with a near perfect drive from him. He managed to lead easily from lap 1 and had no competition as he extended the gap to p2 and closed the gap in the driver’s championship. In P2, was George Russell and after an unfortunate week of being sick, it was an impressive driver and even more impressive result to be that high up, knowing that sickness can often be difficult to work around. In P3, for the first time since moving and the first Williams podium since Lance Stroll in 2017, was Carlos Sainz and It was an unexpected result, but given the fight he brought to qualifying and the race itself, a very deserved result.

Your top 3 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz P3, George Russell P2 and Max Verstappen P1.

Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris had a difficult time being stuck being the Racing Bulls and RedBull Racing drivers and having to settle for P7. Liam Lawson was the king of defence in Baku, which secured him a P5 result for himself and points for the team, whilst Yuki Tsunoda also banked some decent points with a P6 finish. Isack Hadjar was the final driver finishing P10 and resulting in a double points scoring weekend for Racing Bulls.

Another mid weekend for the Ferrari pairing, whilst both drivers scored point’s they were looking for more. Lewis Hamilton was able to catch up to Norris eventually but with not enough time to overtake. He settled for P8, whilst his teammate Charles Leclerc made it to P9.

The Ferrari Duo, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton with a tough weekend in Azerbaijan.

Just missing out on a top 10 finish were two young rookie drivers. In P11, was Gabriel Bortoleto and he drove a great race but just did not have enough to get closer to that top 10. Similarly, Oliver Bearman had a good race for Haas, with this looking more positive for the team, they also just missed out with not enough pace compared to the top 10. Overall, though for both these drivers, a good race and plenty of defensive moments for them.

Oliver Bearman driving a brilliant race in Baku with battles for positions very early on, including with Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg.

The Aston Martin duo went under the radar over the weekend, with a bad qualifying and not so great race. It was quiet from them as they finished P17 and P15. That car can typically do rather good in a qualifying situation, but often, under race pace they do struggle slightly. This sometimes is track dependent too.

As for a quiet weekend these drivers were not spoken about much. In P16 was Nico Hulkenberg and he seems to have weekends where he does well and some where he does struggle slightly, this was not as strong as some other weekends from him, and he had to settle for a P16 result. Esteban Ocon surprisingly had an impressive run. After being disqualified and forced to start P20, he charged all the way to P14. This is a great result, even without scoring points, it is promising for Haas.

Esteban Ocon battling Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon for track positions. A successful weekend for the Haas pairing.

Lastly in P13 (P11 before penalty) was Alex Albon. He would have wanted a much better result but after crashing in qualifying, it was a big feat to ask of him. He brought it back to P11, before being demoted to P13 after a 10 second penalty for a collision with Franco Colapinto.

Starting from the back of the field, an unfortunate result for Alpine being at the back of the grid, Franco Colapinto finished in P19, after an incident with Alex Albon that may have hampered his race. His teammate Pierre Gasly finished P18. Overall, a very quiet day and not the result they would have been hoping for.

A tough race weekend for both alpine drivers with collisions and raw pace failing them in Baku.

Now we begin to look forward to the next Grand Prix Weekend which is in Singapore. This will be an interesting weekend, with the heat and the fast-paced circuit, will McLaren see a rise back to the top? Will Ferrari or Mercedes come through for a stronger weekend, or will Max Verstappen take out yet another win?

The Singapore Grand Prix begins on October 3^rd through to October 6^th.

Under the lights and racing in hot weather conditions for the Singapore Grand Prix.