Everything went well for Red Bull Racing in Baku. But Max Verstappen is on guard despite the fifth win of the season. “I know that luck and bad luck are always roughly balanced over the course of a season.”
Double victory and best race lap for Red Bull Racing in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, 44 points scooped from Baku, it couldn’t be better. Max Verstappen extended his championship lead with his fifth win of the season (after Saudi Arabia, Emilia-Romagna, Miami and Spain). But the Dutchman will not be lulled into a false sense of security before the upcoming World Championship round in Montreal.
After his 25th GP victory, the Dutchman says: «It started with a good start, but then I ran out of space, the run-up to the first corner in Baku is quite short. After that it was time for a little patience. During the virtual safety car phase, we decided to leave both cars on the track and stay on the first set of tires a little longer.”
“The car felt better in the race than in practice, the degradation of the medium-hard rollers was limited. We switched to the hard Pirelli and it would have been exciting to see how that would have played out against Charles Leclerc. I am convinced that we would have caught him because we had the faster car in the race.”
“I’ve always said that good and bad luck balance each other out over the course of a season. At the beginning of the season I was unlucky twice with absentees, now Charles has been hit twice in Barcelona and Baku. We are now on an equal footing. In a world championship fight, the same always applies – ideally you have to score a lot in every Grand Prix if you want to have a say in the title. »
Max Verstappen remains on guard because he knows how quickly the tide can turn again in Formula 1: “It is obvious that we are not ahead in qualifying, Ferrari is better on a fast lap, from which whatever reasons. Maybe that will help us for the race trim, but I would prefer it if we had a little more speed in the final practice session and a better feeling for the car. I see the performance on Saturday as the greatest room for improvement at the moment.”
How is all this going in Canada? Max says: «Before a weekend it is always difficult to assess the competitiveness exactly. So far, every weekend has been about the question – Red Bull Racing or Ferrari? But it’s usually not possible to say before a Grand Prix who will ultimately come out on top. Even here, after the final training session, we weren’t sure of ourselves. It’s also useless to confuse everything. Especially since so many unforeseen things can happen in a race.”
Azerbaijan GP, Baku
01. Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing, 1:34:10,268 h
02. Sergio Pérez (MEX), Red Bull Racing, +20,823 sec
03. George Russell (GB), Mercedes, +45,995
04. Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes, +1:11,679 min
05. Pierre Gasly (F), AlphaTauri, +1:17,299
06. Sebastian Vettel (D), Aston Martin, +1:24,099
07. Fernando Alonso (E), Alpine, +1: 28.596
08. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS), McLaren, +1:32.207
09. Lando Norris (GB), McLaren, +1: 32,556
10. Esteban Ocon (F), Alpine, +1:48,184
11. Valtteri Bottas (FIN), Alfa Romeo, + 1 Round
12. Alex Albon (T), Williams, +1 Runde
13. Yuki Tsotaka (J), AlphaTauri, + 1 Runde
14. Mick Schumacher (D), Haas, +1 lap
15. Nicholas Latifi (CDN), Williams, + 1 Runde
Out
Lance Stroll (CDN), Aston Martin
Kevin Magnussen (DK), Haas
Guanyu Zhou (RC), Alfa Romeo
Charles Leclerc (MC), Ferrari (Motor)
Carlos Sainz (E), Ferrari (hydraulics)
Drivers’ Championship (after 8 of 22 races)
01. Verstappen 150 points
02. Pérez 129
03. Leclerc 116
04. Russell 99
05. Sainz 83
06. Hamilton 62
07. Norris 50
08. Bottas 40
09. Ocon 31
10. Gasly 16
11. Alonso 16
12. Magnussen 15
13. Ricciardo 15
14. Vettel 13
15. Tsunoda 11?
16. Albon 3
17. Stroll 2
18. Zhou 1
19. Schumacher 0
20. Nico Hulkenberg (D) 0
21. Latifi 0
Stand Constructors’ Cup
01. Red Bull Racing 279 Punkte
02. Ferrari 199
03. Mercedes 161
04. McLaren 65
05. Alpine 47
06. Alfa Romeo 41
07. AlphaTauri 27
08. Haas 15
09. Aston Martin 15
10. Williams 3