Max Verstappen takes advantage of McLaren slip ups and dominates the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as there are some feel good stories further down the gird. Talking of throwing things away, our 2025 Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix Result Summary is 100% recyclable.
This 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2025 Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene –Azerbaijan proved to be a handful for qualifying with six red flags caused by various incidents. The biggest were Charles Leclerc, who looked quick across the weekend and a pole sitter for the last four races in Azerbaijan and Championship leader Oscar Piastri. Piastri’s red flag incident left just over three minutes left on the clock to finish Q3, giving his team mate and Championship rival Lando Norris an open goal to maximise the punishment for Piastri’s mistake. But Lando Norris brushed the wall and qualified seventh.
Carlos Sainz held provisional pole position before that final burst, and with sprinkling rain had a chance a keeping an unlikely pole position for Williams, but Max Verstappen went fastest for a sixth pole of the season – more than any other driver. Carlos Sainz held onto second and was joined in the top three by Liam Lawson. After Lando Norris and/or Ferraris had dominated earlier sessions, it was a different grid than expected.
Among the crashers were Alex Albon, the two Alpines, Nico Hulkenberg and Oliver Bearman. Lewis Hamilton (12th) missed Q3 again, and some welcome return to form for under pressure drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Antonelli.
It could rain for the race, but it is plenty windy. Just to make life more difficult.
A mixed up grid usually equals best race of the season, and throw in potential weather at a track with speed and walls and it shouldn’t be dull.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER SAI LAW ANT RUS TSU NOR HAD PIA LEC
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away best and keeps the lead into the first corner as the field behave themselves through the first two corners. Disaster for Oscar Piastri who doubles down his lowly grid slot with a terrible start and is dead last going into turn one. It gets worse….Piastri is in the wall……he appears to have just outbraked himself and gone into the wall where you wouldn’t him to do so around turn six. And replays showed he also jumped the start. What a terrible weekend for the Championship leader. His only saving grace is that Lando Norris didn’t make a great start either and is only 8th for now.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER SAI LAW ANT RUS TSU HAD NOR LEC HAM
Lap 2 – Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon both pit for tyres. That could be a long, long stint for them if they plan to do just the one stop. Replays show that Hulkenberg clipped Ocon on lap one.
SAFETY CAR EXITS
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen keeps the lead after the Safety Car exited. Charles Leclerc takes 8th from Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton behind looks racey too. George Russell drops a few places among the other notable moves.
ORDER – VER SAI LAW ANT TSU RUS HAD LEC NOR HAM
Lap 6 – Lando Norris gets past Isack Hadjar for 8th into turn one, just as Charles Leclerc had done so half a lap earlier.
Lap 7 – Fernando Alonso (11th) gets a five second penalty for jumping the start. He admits he was only reacting to Oscar Piastri’s jump start. Which should give you an indication of how bad the jump start was.
Lap 8 – Lewis Hamilton passes Isack Hadjar for 9th. Talking of Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson is good a fine job in third, keeping far enough ahead of fourth placed Kimi Antonelli. Max Verstappen isn’t really clearing away either. He’s just 1.7 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz who is doing a super job in second.
Lap 10 – George Russell passes Yuki Tsunoda for fifth after a decent battle. Tsunoda has done well so far but is showing signs of a race day fade again.
Lap 14 – The gap from Verstappen in first to Carlos Sainz in second is 3.6 seconds with Lawson a further 3.3 behind Sainz but with Mercedes looming on the tail of the Racing Bulls. Championship update is Lando Norris remaining eighth in between the two Ferraris. That’s a gain of just four points to Piastri for Norris, a result which you’d expect Piastri to be happy with.
ORDER – VER SAI LAW ANT RUS TSU LEC NOR HAM HAD
Lap 18 – Alex Albon is busy challenging Oscar Piastri for the worst weekend by clipping Franco Colapinto into a spin with a half arsed passing move. He’ll surely get a penalty. Colapinto could surely do without the clash.
Lap 19 – After laps of George Russell discussing with his team that he had the fastest car/tyre/anything, Mercedes pit Kimi Antonelli for new tyres. George Russell can now prove just how fast he is in 4th place, and how quickly he can steal 3rd place from a gallant Liam Lawson. Antonelli dropped to 12th after the stop.
Lap 20 – Charles Leclerc pits for new tyres, giving Lando Norris another place gained for now. Leclerc joins just behind Antonelli.
Lap 21 – Liam Lawson pits to try and save his position against Kimi Antonelli. Lawson rejoins only just in front of Antonelli and just hangs on for the first few corners. Just as he just hung onto the car leaving the pit lane. Antonelli gets past on lap 22.
ORDER – VER SAI RUS TSU NOR HAM HAD BOR ANT (1) LAW (1)
Pit stops in brackets.
Lap 25 – Close to halfway and another quiet achieving weekend for Max Verstappen who is just under eight seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz in second. Could Verstappen be launching a stealth challenge at the title while McLarens argue about papaya rules and run into walls?
George Russell on a longer stint is looking to leapfrog into third. Further back, Lando Norris is not making much progress on Yuki Tsunoda and is over two seconds behind. Lewis Hamilton is even more underwhelming behind Norris being over four seconds behind the McLaren, but he is on the hard tyre, and Hamiton and Norris will have to swap tyre types for the second half of the race. Leclerc is faster by half a second a lap on Lando Norris for the last three laps, but is stuck behind Liam Lawson which isn’t good for car, tyres or morale.
Lap 28 – Carlos Sainz pits from second and rejoins in sixth, which should see him comfortably keep second place.
Lap 32 – George Russell tells the team he’s happy to stay out on the 30 lap old tyres. Best of luck to him, but he does seem to be cruising good enough. It also good enough for Max Verstappen who is 14 seconds in front of Russell’s second placed Mercedes.
Lap 35 – Charles Leclerc still stuck behind Liam Lawson, who continues to do an amazing job. The hold-up could be beneficial to Lando Norris when he makes his first pit stop, although his pace is hardly setting the world on fire. Lando even gets a hurry-up from the team radio.
ORDER – VER RUS TSU NOR HAM SAI (1) ANT (1) LEC (1) HAD (1) – Pitstops in brackets.
Lap 38 – Lando Norris pits for tyres, where will be re-join is a potentially Championship defining moment. It’s a slow stop, again. And he rejoins behind Charles Leclerc and Liam Lawson. Those extra few seconds with a quicker stop would have seen him clear those two. And with Piastri out, he can’t swap with the cars in front this weekend. Yuki Tsunoda pits the next lap and comes out just in front of Liam Lawson, but not for long. Lawson outdrags Tsunoda and take the position.
ORDER – VER RUS SAI ANT LAW TSU LEC NOR HAM HAD – only VER/RUS 0 Stops.
Lap 40 – George Russell pits and keeps second place, just a second in front of Carlos Sainz. At the same time Lando Norris challenges Charles Leclerc to gain a place but falls short this time.
Lap 41 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead, and keeps the lead. The Red Bull is cruising to victory.
Lando Norris does pass Charles Leclerc for 7th into turn one. He has Tsunoda and Lawson within reasonable reach by the end of the race. That would give him 5th place and reduce that Championship gap nicely.
Lap 42 – Light rain is apparently falling……
Lap 43 – Charles Leclerc lets Lewis Hamilton past on the softer Medium tyres to give him a chance at the cars in front in a rare well executed strategy call. He’s two seconds behind Lando Norris who has closed in on the Red Bull rejects battle of Tsunoda and Lawson.
ORDER – VER RUS SAI ANT LAW TSU NOR HAM LEC HAD
Lap 44 – Liam Lawson is building a nice train of cars behind him, which soon includes both Ferraris. Tsunoda takes a look at Liam Lawson into turn one without a defining move. There is a sizeable chance it will end in tears.
Lap 47 – The Lawson “Express” still has a bunch of cars behind, and now Lewis Hamilton is right on Lando Norris’ tail, meaning the McLaren will have to worry about cars in front and behind now. Maybe the six points on offer for seventh is better than chancing zero and letting his team mate’s awful weekend off the hook. For the record, Lawson is doing an outstanding job of staying in front, with all the other cars helping themselves to DRS.
Lap 49 – Lando Norris is still not close enough for a move on Tsunoda, and neither is Hamilton on Norris. If Hamilton can’t get past he’ll have to give the place back to Leclerc, so in his best interest to get past.
FINAL LAP – The Liam Lawson train continues as Max Verstappen serenely leads out front and wins in style. Lando Norris gets as aggressive as he has been in the battle with Yuki Tsunoda, but there’s hesitation going around the first half of the lap and he doesn’t get in front by the end of the race. Further ahead great drives from George Russell and Carlos Sainz end in podiums. Kimi Antonelli regains some reputation with four place, with some redemption for Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER RUS SAI ANT LAW TSU NOR HAM LEC HAD
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – CARLOS SAINZ
Carlos hasn’t had much luck in 2025, but like Piastri he may as well have a change in fortune all at once. Sainz held pole position for a while before Verstappen stole it late. But Sainz qualified the Willaims on the front row and ran second for the first half of the race.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Took another pole position from under the noses of McLaren and Ferrari, both of whom underperformed in various ways. His sixth pole which means he’s taken more pole positions than any other drivers this season. He won with an ominous ease we have seen with Red Bull in previous seasons. If McLaren continue to choke or worry about each other, then Verstappen may well sneak up on them for the title.
LIAM LAWSON – With talk of Hadjar already locked in for Red Bull in 2026, and F2 driver Arvid Lindblad potentially coming into Racing Bulls in 2026, it was great timing for Lawson to show his speed. Which he did. The third on the grid was a huge effort, and he did look quick throughout the session. Maintained third without too much sweat in the race early in the race.
KIMI ANTONELLI – Outqualified George Russell, and raced well. Needed it too. Fell behind Russell in the race, but kept it clean enough for a swag of points.
GEORGE RUSSELL – As ever, drove an underrated quality race, maximising what was on offer as the McLarens slip up.
YUKI TSUNODA – A much better weekend for Tsunoda, who qualifies well inside the top ten, and races inside the top ten, and finishes in the top ten.
THE GRAPE-EST – OSCAR PIASTRI
Well, we guess if you’re going to have a bad weekend, you may as well do everything all at once. A rare mistake in qualifying saw him end up in the wall. He wasn’t punished initially by his team mate Lando Norris who only qualified 7th, but the Australian took matters into his own hands. He jumped the start, then baulked, ended up dead last after the first few corners then ended his race on lap one in the wall. Hopefully this isn’t the Mark Webber polish rubbing off on the Australian as the Championship battle heats up.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
ALEX ALBON – Really competed with Oscar Piastri for worst weekend, and only the Championship implications gave the nod to Piastri. Albon crashed in qualifying, started from the back of the grid, and ran into Franco Colapinto in a clumsy move, which he got a penalty for. But did finish the race.
LANDO NORRIS – Looked fast across the weekend as ever, and handed the prime opportunity to wrestle back the momentum in the Championship race. Only qualified 7th when he knew his team mate was out after a crash. And 7th in the race gains just the six points back in a weekend where Piastri was uncharacteristically awful. Maybe the pressure is getting to them both. Not good, as Red Bull/Max Verstappen find form.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Spinning into a wall in qualifying, running at the back and getting hit by Alex Albon in the race early is a pretty miserable weekend. With no job security for 2026, it is badly timed bad luck.
FERRARI – After showing flashes of pace, both drivers stuff qualifying. Hamilton by missing Q3 through a lack of pace and Charles Leclerc running into the wall in Q3. Their races weren’t too bad, but too much to do from midfield grid positions.
ALPINE – Both drivers off in qualifying. Cars are last and second last in the race.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 4 / 5
Although it took forever, there’s never been a qualifying session with as many Red Flags or the accidents that caused them. The stop-start nature threw up a surprising qualifying result, and the danger of the walls was ever present through the earlier sessions. And having the B Team from Sky F1 was refreshing.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 4 / 10
Aside from the big moment on lap one with Oscar Piastri and a few moves in the early laps, it wasn’t as action packed as qualifying teased it could be.
ANY SURPRISES? – 4 / 5
Oscar Piastri in the wall on lap one is as big a surprise as you’ll get in 2025.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
Oscar Piastri throwing the qualifying and race away gave Lando Norris a huge advantage to close the Championship gap. Norris sort-of took it but didn’t really. His 7th placing could have been higher and probably should have been higher. Max Verstappen’s second win from pole in two races makes you wonder if he can mount a title challenge yet. Especially if McLaren drivers appear to be choking under the pressure.
ENDING – 3 / 5
The Liam Lawson train made for some excitement at the end as it included Championship deficit reducing Lando Norris as one of the carriages.
OVERALL RATING – 20 / 30
Potentially championship defining weekend, with some tension, but ultimately disappointing given how action packed qualifying was.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
R4 – Bahrain Grand Prix – 19/30
R5 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – 17/30
R6 – Miami Grand Prix – 17/30
R7 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – 20/30
R8 – Monaco Grand Prix – 21/30
R9 – Spanish Grand Prix – 15/30
R10 – Canadian Grand Prix – 18/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix – 20/30
R12 – British Grand Prix – N/A but was great
R13 – Belgian Grand Prix – 13/30
R14 – Hungarian Grand Prix – 22/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix – 22/30
R16 – Italian Grand Prix – 16/30
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