Max Verstappen booked his 25th grand prix victory in his F1 career on Sunday. The best news in Azerbaijan was that he dealt a blow to rival Charles Leclerc in the title fight.
Leclerc dropped out for Ferrari on a deplorable afternoon with engine problems and Verstappen took full advantage of that: he won in the streets of Baku. Team-mate Sergio Perez rounded out the Red Bull party with a second-place finish, ahead of number three George Russell (Mercedes).
Changes
Verstappen started in third place, behind Leclerc and Perez. Perez immediately took over from Leclerc. The other Ferrari dropped behind Verstappen: brake problems cost Carlos Sainz the head. A virtual safety car situation arose which Leclerc used for an early pit stop. Verstappen did not change and moved up a spot, to P2.
tactical duel
Leclerc thus maneuvered into a two-stop strategy, while the Red Bulls appeared to be on their way to one tire change in a tactical duel. Verstappen passed stable mate Perez, who was not allowed to enter the game by the team. Verstappen also proved faster and made a gap, until both Red Bulls also had to change their tires and Leclerc – as expected – took the lead again.
engine thud
But Leclerc was blown away when he fell victim to an engine crash: the Ferrari power unit broke down and Leclerc was knighted on foot. Thus, the drama was complete for the Monegask and Ferrari, which no longer had a car in competition after 21 laps. There was no problem for leader Verstappen. He was able to change tires again when the Ferrari engine (!) in Kevin Magnussen’s Haas gave up the ghost.
25th win
Verstappen only had to finish the race without mistakes and did so with verve, and thus booked his 25th F1 race win. This puts him in the top ten grand prix winners of all time: he is now joint ninth on that list, alongside legends Niki Lauda and Jim Clark.
For the first time the Wilhelmus sounds in Baku! Max wins his 25th Formula 1 race and is firmly in the lead. What a race. #AzerbaijanGP #RedBullRacing #MaxVerstappen #ViaplaySportNL #ViaplayF1 pic.twitter.com/tkoj7JiJoz
— Viaplay Sport Netherlands (@viaplaysportnl) June 12, 2022
Red Bull 1 and 2
Before the race, Verstappen had a nine point lead over Leclerc and a 15 point margin over Perez. Leclerc is losing a lot of ground: Verstappen now has 34 points more than the Ferrari driver, who also sees Perez coming alongside. The Mexican, who set the fastest race lap of the day, is now second in the World Cup, 21 points behind Verstappen.
Canada
Next week the next race is already on the program: the Canadian Grand Prix.