Verstappen at his best can beat the rest

Max Verstappen drove a race of superior quality to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last Sunday.

Such was his speed that he could play with the field and make up for any safety car disturbances with ease.

It was a most unusual race with a topsy-turvy qualifying session.

This was due to abnormal conditions of changeable winds and high crosswinds that played havoc with the aerodynamic downforce of the cars.

Hence there were a number of accidents during qualifying which turned the tables on the normal McLaren domination.

Qualifying positions were Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson, Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc.

What a turnaround for the books!

This situation obviously set the pattern for the race which, as I said, allowed Verstappen to do what he liked, which was to run away from the opposition and then some.

It was a good race for Russell, who brought his Mercedes up from fifth on the grid to an excellent second position, 15 seconds behind Verstappen.

Only four seconds behind was Carlos Sainz who put his Williams into the third position on the podium.

This was a good achievement for the Bidcot firm which will lift motivation tremendously after tasting the sweetness of success.

Kimi Antonelli was another three seconds back from Sainz in his Mercedes in fourth spot, also excellent for rookie experience.

Liam Lawson was next in fifth place in the first of the Racing Bulls with Yuki Tsunoda right on his tail.

A somewhat sad Norris closely followed the Red Bull in his McLaren into seventh position.

In eighth place was Hamilton a second behind Norris, with team mate Leclerc slipstreaming Hamilton into ninth spot just three quarters of a second behind the second car from Marenello.

Isack Hadjar scored the last point after yet another finish in the top 10 which augurs well for this young man in the future.

Championship leader Piastri had a race to forget, uncharacteristically poor and after a series of mistakes, ended up not finishing.

The overall form display in Azerbaijan is not likely to be repeated at the next event in Singapore but the unexpected result is healthy for the future of Formula One.

The Singapore race takes place in just two weeks’ time.

DRIVERS
Oscar Piastri 324
Lando Norris 299
Max Verstappen 255
George Russell 212
Charles Leclerc 165
Lewis Hamilton 121
Kimi Antonelli 78
Alexander Albon 70
Isack Hadjar 39
Nico Hulkenburg 37

CONSTRUCTORS
McLaren 623
Mercedes 290
Ferrari 286
Red Bull 272
Williams 101

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