Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix to boost his slim title defence dreams.
Verstappen led from lights to flag unchallenged to clinch consecutive victories for the first time since Canadian and Spanish Grands Prix in June 2024, although he did comfortably control a safety car restart after championship leader – Oscar Piastri crashed at turn 6.
The 27-year-old Dutchman also claimed the fastest lap to achieve the sixth Grand Chelem of his F1 career.
Mercedes’ George Russell executed a long opening stint to eventually secure second ahead of Carlos Sainz who achieved his first podium as a Williams driver.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Isack Hadjar rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Piastri’s title lead over Norris was trimmed to 25 points with Verstappen now 69 points off the summit heading into the last seven rounds of the season.
McLaren continue to lead the constructors’ standings on 623 points and can now win the title in Singapore on 5 October, whilst Mercedes leapfrogged Ferrari into second on 290 to 286 points but Red Bull are now 18 points behind the second-placed Silver Arrows in fourth.
Amidst heavy winds and a threat of rain, Verstappen made a clean start from Sainz whilst Norris lost seventh to Hadjar as McLaren faced a prospect of sealing the constructors’ title if outscored Ferrari by nine points.
That particular prospect was dealt a tough early blow as Piastri jumped the start and got bogged down to last place as a consequence, before he then locked up his front end and hit the barriers at Turn 6 to bring out the safety car.
Racing resumed on lap 5 with Lawson quickly holding up Antonelli whilst Tsunoda held up Russell following a pass on the Brit.
Norris meanwhile was jumped by Leclerc for eighth on the restart but both drivers cleared Hadjar a lap later before they got stuck in the queue led by Tsunoda, whilst Hamilton had to wait until lap 8 to pass Hadjar into the first corner to join the DRS train.
Towards the back of the grid, Williams’ Alex Albon picked up a ten-second time penalty after he spun Franco Colapinto’s Alpine on lap 17, although the Argentinian was able to continue.
Lawson comfortably sat third in the opening stint and forced Antonelli to pit on lap 19 to attempt the undercut which initially proved futile once Lawson pitted two laps later, but the Italian stayed in the Kiwi’s slipstream and cleared him for a net third-placed position on lap 22.
Sainz waited until lap 28 to make his stop from second position and rejoined sixth behind Verstappen, Russell, Tsunoda, Norris and Hamilton who had yet to make their mandatory pit stops.
Hamilton was the first of that quintet to pit on lap 37 but couldn’t undercut Norris who suffered a slow stop as he unsuccessfully tried to undercut Tsunoda as the latter pair pitted on the following two laps.
Tsunoda though briefly undercut Lawson who passed his Red Bull replacement on warmer tyres on the Honda junior’s outlap, but Tsunoda fended off Leclerc who slipped into Norris’ grasp and the Brit cleared the Monegasque at the start of lap 41 for seventh.
Verstappen on that very lap made his mandatory stop and proceeded to cruise to his fifth overall win of the season to cut his title deficit down to 69 points with seven rounds left.
Russell meanwhile stopped on lap 40 and managed to rejoin ahead of Sainz to secure second from the Williams’ driver, as Sainz picked up his first podium for his latest team in third.
Antonelli settled for fourth ahead of Lawson as the Kiwi held off Tsunoda, Norris and Hamilton in a tense finish in the fight for fifth, whilst Leclerc and Hadjar completed the top ten.
F1 now heads to Singapore from 3-5 October, where McLaren will seek to wrap up their constructors’ title defence and achieve back-to-back titles since a run of four title between 1988 – 91.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 51 | 1h ..m .. |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 51 | + 14.609 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 51 | + 19.199 |
| 4 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 51 | + 21.760 |
| 5 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 51 | + 33.290 |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 51 | + 33.808 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 51 | + 34.227 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 51 | + 36.310 |
| 9 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 51 | + 36.774 |
| 10 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 51 | + 38.982 |
| 11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | 51 | + 67.606 |
| 12 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 51 | + 68.262 |
| 13 | Alex Albon | Williams | 51 | + 72.870 |
| 14 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 51 | + 77.580 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 51 | + 78.707 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 51 | + 80.237 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 51 | + 96.392 |
| 18 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 50 | + 1 Lap |
| 19 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 50 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 0 | Crash |
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