Raceday Recap: Well Done, Baku

Castles, cats, and cars galore - the F1 calendar returns to Azerbaijan once again for a weekend of speed! This track is well known for many reasons, including its beautiful architecture and Charles Leclerc’s iconic “stupid” crash in 2019. The championship is still undecided as we enter the events of Baku, so let’s see how this race weekend shakes things up!

Saturday’s qualifying was choppy to say the least, as there were too many yellow and red flags to count! In the end, though, Max Verstappen pulled out a last minute flying lap to take pole position, followed by Carlos Sainz starting from P2 (!!!!!) and Liam Lawson starting from P3 (!!!!!!!!!). The Mercedes drivers took up the 4th and 5th spots on the grid, with Kimi Antonelli in front and George Russell behind. Yuki Tsunoda made it up to P6, Lando Norris settled into P7, and Isack Hadjar achieved a P8 start. Neither Charles Leclerc nor Oscar Piastri set a lap time in Q3 before they each crashed, so Piastri started from 9th while Leclerc began the race from 10th.

Dare I say the most impressive podium from the season so far: Carlos Sainz cooking in a Williams, Max Verstappen coming back for vengeance, and rookie Liam Lawson finally stepping up. Photo courtesy of Speed Cafe.

Immediately after the lights went out, Piastri dropped like a rock into P20, slamming into the wall on the first lap just a few seconds later. He jumped the start and then his car stalled after he tried to fix his mistake, which might explain why he was passed by every driver behind him on the grid. Fernando Alonso followed Piastri’s movement rather than watching the lights, so he received a 5 second time penalty for the false start, but accepted it understandingly. While Piastri’s crash was happening, Nico Hulkenberg cut across the width of the track and accidentally touched his front left tyre with Esteban Ocon’s back right tyre - an incident that sent Ocon to the pits early. On lap 5, Antonelli maintained his position over Russell on the right side of Turn 1, while Leclerc gained positions over Norris and Hadjar on the main straight. Norris eventually got around Hadjar in between laps 5 and 6, pushing his McLaren up into 8th. Hadjar then got passed again by Lewis Hamilton, and DRS carried Russell past Tsunoda around lap 10. 7 laps later, Alex Albon had a little fender bender with Franco Colapinto, but the Alpine driver was able to recover and continue the race. Albon, however, was not so lucky - the Williams driver was handed a 10 second penalty. On lap 22, Antonelli sped past Lawson in the fastest and smoothest overtake of the race. Lap 38 saw McLaren continuing their recent pattern of inefficiency concerning Norris’ pit stop times, with a long stop of 4.1 seconds. On the next lap, Lawson took 5th place from Tsunoda almost as quickly as Tsunoda took the Red Bull seat from Lawson earlier this season…yikes! With 10 laps to go, Norris got by Leclerc with a shower of sparks streaming behind him, and on the very last lap remained in 7th place after being unable to eke by Tsunoda.

George Russell chilling out with one of the notorious Baku paddock cats. Photo courtesy of F1.

After it was all said and done, Max Verstappen emerged at the top of the podium to claim his 4th win of the 2025 season. George Russell had a successful race and ended up in P2, followed by Carlos Sainz securing 3rd place for Williams’ first podium since 2021. Sainz is also now the 2nd driver ever to win a podium for Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams, alongside the legend Alain Prost. Kimi Antonelli took 4th place for Mercedes, and Liam Lawson achieved a great result of P5 just ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 6th. McLaren had a rough day as Lando Norris finished 7th, followed by Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton in P8 and Charles Leclerc in P9. Isack Hadjar claimed the last point in Baku, completing the race weekend.

While many teams had issues this week, the main highlights included Carlos’ first smooth operation at Williams and the notorious Baku paddock cat - two things that should cheer any forlorn fans up. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this race, and I hope you enjoyed it too! As always, thanks for reading.

Lights out and away we go,

Lucy xx