Verstappen Believes Red Bull’s Double Podium Finish in Azerbaijan is “a fantastic result”

Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull’s double podium finish at the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is “a fantastic result” for the team. 

Verstappen recovered from eighth to fourth in the opening four laps – having qualified eighth due to a power unit issue -before he was promoted to third on lap seven upon a team instruction to swap with Isack Hadjar, but the pair failed to pass McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the opening stint.

The 28-year-old then cleared Piastri on lap 36 in the first of two safety car restarts before he chased down eventual winner – George Russell but fell 0.196 seconds shy at the checkered flag.

Reflecting on his race, Verstappen felt that his pace was better on the soft tyre once he pitted on lap 32 and cleared Piastri four laps later, after having struggled to pass the Aussie on his medium tyres.

“For most of the race we were on the Medium tyre, which didn’t perform as well as expected, but we still managed to work our way up the field nicely.

“Once we swapped to the Soft, it felt much better. We had a good first restart and during the last few laps with George, we were pushing flat out. We had good pace and were both pulling away from those behind.”

Despite having fell short of a first win of the season despite Russell having lost maximum turbo power on the back straight, Verstappen felt that their first double podium finish since the 2024 Chinese GP was a positive.

On the final lap it got close as we approached the line because George had turbo lag out of T15 due to the yellow flags.

“We really maximised the result today and we will, of course, keep trying for a win. All in all, it was a fantastic result for the Team to have two cars on the podium; that is exactly what you want to see.”