Oscar Piastri’s Sunday in Baku lasted a matter of seconds. The McLaren driver, who came in leading the drivers’ standings, jumped the start from ninth on the grid, tripped his car’s anti-stall and dropped to the very back of the field before sliding into the Turn 5 barriers on the opening lap.

From pole position, Max Verstappen simply drove away. The Red Bull crossed the line 14.609 seconds clear of George Russell’s Mercedes in a race that turned into a procession once the safety car had cleared the wreckage.

Third belonged to Carlos Sainz, and it belonged to Williams. The Spaniard held off a faster Kimi Antonelli through the closing stint to score the team’s first podium since the rain-shortened 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s hard-tyre gamble pays off

Verstappen was the only driver in the top four to start on the hard tyre, a strategy he pushed his engineers to accept. It turned the race into a one-stop cruise, and he set the fastest lap on the penultimate tour for good measure.

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“I think this weekend has been incredible for us. Of course, last weekend was already great, but for us to win here again is just fantastic,” he told reporters after the race.

His fourth win of the season cut his deficit to Piastri at the top of the drivers’ standings to 69 points with seven races left on the calendar.

Sainz: ‘This is my life project’

Sainz had spent his first Williams season being told the results did not match the promise of his winter move from Ferrari. The podium in Baku was the answer.

He spoke to Sky Sports after the race.

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“This is my life project. If I manage to bring Williams back to being competitive and winning races, it’s everything that I care about,” Sainz said.

Williams had not seen a driver on the podium since George Russell’s second place in the rain-truncated 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, and not from a full-length race since 2017. Team principal James Vowles said the drive was a turning point for a driver who had been carrying the weight of a difficult season.

“He needs this, and you’ll see now the positive momentum it generates,” Vowles said.

Piastri: ‘Certainly not my finest moment’

Piastri accepted full blame. The Australian said he had misread the grip on the run to Turn 5 and pushed too hard trying to recover from his botched getaway.

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“Certainly not my finest moment,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“I just anticipated the start too much, and it was a silly, simple error with that. Then, the crash, I just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. I clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.”

It was his first retirement since the 2023 United States Grand Prix. Teammate Lando Norris trimmed the championship gap by finishing seventh, leaving Piastri 25 points clear at the top with Singapore up next on the schedule.

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