The China Mail - Verstappen wins 'incredible' Azerbaijan GP as Piastri crashes out

Driving with supreme authority, the Dutchman led from lights to flag to claim his first win on the unforgiving barrier-lined Baku street track, his second in succession this month, fourth this year and 67th of his career.

Verstappen came home 14.609 seconds clear of Mercedes’ George Russell, who has been struggling with sickness all weekend, and 19sec clear of Carlos Sainz who scored his first podium and best result since joining Williams from Ferrari this season.

Mercedes’ teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli put his run of poor outings behind him by finishing fourth ahead of Racing Bulls’ rookie Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull – leaving Lando Norris, in the second McLaren, to come home seventh.

For Norris, it was a wasted opportunity to exploit Piastri’s rare misfortune after the Australian’s run of 34 points finishes ended in the Turn Six barriers.

He trimmed his title lead by only six points to 25 while McLaren, needing to beat Ferrari by nine points for a second consecutive teams’ title missed out, but have seven rounds remaining.

In winning, Verstappen completed more laps as race leader this season than Norris and delivered the sixth 'grand slam' of pole, win and fastest lap in his career.

With 255 points, he is now third behind Norris on 299 and leader Piastri on 324.

"An incredible weekend," said Verstappen.

"For us to win here is fantastic. The car was great on both compounds, we had clean air all the way and it was pretty straightforward.

"It was windy and the car moved around a lot, but I’m happy with the performance ad glad there weren’t too many safety cars."

A croaky Russell said he was happy to be back on the podium after a "rough weekend" but admitted he was "glad to see the chequered flag".

Ferrari’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finished eighth ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc with Racing Bulls’ second rookie Isack Hadjar 10th.

"Vamos, Vamos!" yelled Sainz, a four-time race winner. "This is the best result of my career! Honestly, I can’t describe how it feels. It tastes better than my first podium."

- Piastri shunt -

Verstappen made a clean start from his 46th pole, but the real drama unfolded behind him as Piastri made a jump start, paused, fell to last and, after joining the fray, locked up and hit the wall at Turn Six.

It was the 24-year-old Australian’s first no-points finish of the year, ending a run of 34 races in the points and threw open the title race, giving Norris a great opportunity to reduce his 31-point advantage.

Fernando Alonso also made a false start, for which he was given a five-second penalty, and the Safety Car was deployed until lap five, giving the field a chance to settle in the breezy and cool conditions.

After the crash-hit chaos, with a record six red flags, in Saturday’s qualifying, serenity prevailed with Verstappen opening a five-second lead by lap 20, ahead of Sainz and Lawson.

Only a skirmish when Williams’ Alex Albon hit Alpine's luckless Franco Colapinto interrupted the flow before Leclerc began the pit-stops, swapping his mediums for hards to rejoin 12th. Albon was given a 10-second penalty.

As Verstappen cruised calmly towards victory, the cars behind him scrapped for the crumbs as they boxed in the hope of finding fresh wind on new tyres.

It didn't work out for Norris who had battled his way into the top six when he came in. A messy pit-stop lost him a couple of places which could prove costly in the race for the title.

B.Clarke--ThChM