McLaren Lost Out In Azerbaijan Grand Prix As Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Dominate

Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in an eventful final for McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who retired from the race in the first lap following a crash. 

Verstappen won his first back-to-back race victory of the season, restoring contest for the F1 Championship title as he trails the leader, Piastri by 69 point. George Russell finished in second and Carlos Sainz made his season first podium appearance in third. 

McLaren had a disappointing race in Baku. Oscar Piastri ran into the barrier and crashed out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Lando Norris finished outside of the top five. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz maintained his impressive outing on the grid and finished in third for his first podium appearance for Williams. It was his best performance since leaving Ferrari in 2024. 

It was a chaos-filled race in Baku from the qualifying session. The McLaren duo, Piastri and Noris have been struggling with the tracks. Both of the drivers finished at the bottom of top 10 in Q3. It was the team worst performance in the session this season. However, they are still the leaders of the F1 Championship title with Norris in second and Piastri in first.

Besides having to start from behind, Piastri was penalised from the start. He jumped the start and was given five seconds penalty, which plummeted him from P9 to P20. It was a race he was set not to win, judging from the tricky and slippery nature of Baku, and how the team had struggled with it. 

In the other hand, Verstappen had a dominating race from the start to the finish. He edged Sainz to the pole in the qualifying session on Saturday, and in the final, he maintained the position as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli chased him. In the end it was Russell's seventh podium finish of the season and Sainz's first podium appearance for Williams.