Max Verstappen dominates Azerbaijan Grand Prix as George Russell capitalises on Oscar Piastri catastrophe

MAX VERSTAPPEN dominated the menacing Azerbaijan Grand Prix by a whopping 15 SECONDS as Oscar Piastri crashed out before the first lap had finished.

The normally unflappable Aussie simply locked up and headed straight into the barrier all by himself at Turn 5.

Max Verstappen dominated the F1 race in Azerbaijan He led from start to finish after capitalising on a McLaren horror show George Russell scored second in Baku Oscar Piastri crashed out in the first lap But Williams scored their first podium in Baku since 2021 with Carlos Sainz It was his first podium with the team

It ended a whopping 34-race streak of finishing races but Lando Norris failed to capitalise on his team-mate’s blunder as he finished in seventh and suffered another slow pit stop.

It means the British 24-year-old ate into Piastri’s lead in the title-race by a meagre six points.

George Russell came second while Carlos Sainz finished in third, bagging Williams’ first podium since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

Replays showed that Piastri had also jumped the start, then stopped, and was slow to get away again leaving him near the back before his accident.

The safety car was bought out and marshals had to fix the barriers at Turn 5, wrapping up a horror weekend for Piastri who had qualified in ninth after crashing out in Q3.

It was supposed to be their big weekend, with them able to wrap up the constructor’s title with a record seven races remaining.

Lewis Hamilton went up from 12th to 10th right behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc by the way while Norris had dropped to eighth.

On lap 5 the racing was back again and Verstappen, as expected, expertly restarted from the lead and powered down the main straight away from Sainz.

Fernando Alonso was slapped with a five second time penalty for jumping start as he reacted to Piastri’s move.

But the FIA have confirmed Piastri will not have a grid penalty for the next race in Singapore as five-second time penalties do not affect the following race.

Verstappen stretched his lead to three seconds by lap 12,while Norris was still stuck in eighth behind Yuki Tsunoda and Leclerc.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton had a close shave with the barrier on lap 17 after locking up and nearly hitting the wall.

The treacherous Baku City Circuit nearly took more victims as Alex Albon tagged Franco Colapinto, but the two carried on and a brief yellow flag was brought out.

Half way through and Verstappen led Sainz by nine seconds, then came Russell, Tsunoda, Norris and Hamilton.

Antonelli and Rusell were battling for third while Lawson and Leclerc had pitted and were racing Tsunoda and Norris for fifth.

Hamilton was still running sixth but he suffered another scare as his right-rear wheel grazed the barriers exiting Turn 15, but no damage was done and he continued on his way.

By lap 35, Verstappen was soaring ahead and was a whopping 14-seconds ahead of his old rival Russell.

Norris suffered another slow pit-stop for the second weekend in a row at 4.1 seconds meaning he failed to undercut Leclerc and Lawson.

Race leader Verstappen was the last driver to make his pit stop and came out with a huge 12-second lead to Russell.

Norris finally overtook Leclerc for seventh before the Monegasque driver was told to swap positions with Hamilton who was flying on fresher tyres.

Kimi Antonelli came fourth with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda behind him while Hamilton sealed eighth and Leclerc took ninth.