Max dominates in Baku: 'Incredible weekend'
Published on 21 September 2025 by Florence Cobben
Max Verstappen has won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The four-time world champion led the race from start to finish, and crossed the line with a dominant 14-second lead. It’s the Dutchman’s 67th win and 6th Grand Slam (pole position, 100% laps lead, fastest lap, race win) of his career. He is now tied for second-most Grand Slams in Formula 1 history with Lewis Hamilton, behind record-holder Jim Clark. George Russell and Carlos Sainz completed the top three and joined the winner on the podium.
“Yes! What an unbelievable race! On fire with both compounds. Really well executed. Really really well done the whole weekend. What an incredible weekend for us,” Max celebrates over the team radio after the events of the race. Team principal Laurent Mekies also congratulates Max. Jokingly, the Frenchman reminds the Dutchman of his reputation for struggling around the Baku circuit. Max: “Well… there’s always a time to prove people wrong, hehe. And at the same time – no risk, no fun.”
Out of the car and reflecting on his race, Max elaborates on the weekend: “I think this weekend has been incredible for us. Of course, last week was already great, but for us to win here again is just fantastic. I think also in the race the car was working really well on both of the compounds. We had clean air all the time, and so you can then look after your tyres. It was pretty straightforward. Of course, it’s not easy around here – very windy today so the car is always moving around a lot, but of course (I’m) incredibly happy with this performance.”
This Grand Prix’s qualifying was messy, visited by more than six red flags. During the race, however, there was just one safety car-incident. Max explains why: “In the race always you have to be a bit more careful, right? Also with tyre management and stuff. You want to make the one stop work. So I think everyone was a bit more cautious with that anyway. Plus the compounds that we’re running today, medium and hard, they weren’t really used that much up to today. That all helped. For sure, I was happy that there were not too many safety cars.”
Finally, Max is asked about whether his two recent wins promise an upwards trajectory for the rest of his season. The four-time world champion considers it: “Difficult to say at the moment. But for sure the last few race weekends have been amazing for us. Singapore is a completely different challenge again with the high downforce, so we’ll see what we can do there.”
At 13 o’clock local time the warm up round at Baku commences. The seventeenth Grand Prix of the year begins with Max on pole next to Carlos Sainz (Williams). Unlike the Spaniard on the medium tyre, Max starts on the hard tyre. George Russell (Mercedes) and Yuki Tsunoda (Oracle Red Bull Racing) choose for the same strategy. The rest of the top ten start on the medium tyre. As the lights go out, Max gets away quick and clean. He maintains his lead of the race, and quickly starts pulling away from Sainz. Meanwhile, championship leader Oscar Piastri (McLaren) had a dramatic start. The Australian had a premature start and corrected himself, and then promptly dropped to last place as a result. A couple of turns later, Piastri makes a mistake under braking and ends up in a wall for his troubles. The McLaren-driver steps out of his car unhindered. A safety car is called out, and all the drivers slow down and wait for Piastri’s car to be cleared away. Because Piastri pulled away from his place too early, Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) followed suit. For leaving his starting position prematurely, the Spaniard receives a 5-second penalty.
In lap five the race is resumed. Max has a good restart and keeps the lead of the race. Russell drops behind Tsunoda after a kerfuffle with Mercedes-teammate Kimi Antonelli. Max’s teammate defends admirably against Russell’s attacks until lap 10, where Russell finally overtakes him for P5. In the meantime, Max is pulling away from the rest of the grid. Lap after lap he is setting 1:46.1 or 1:46.2 times, and after fifteen laps, he’s comfortably maintaining a gap of four seconds to Sainz in P2. Behind Sainz is Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), driving ahead of Antonelli and Russell. McLaren-driver Lando Norris is fighting in eighth place, sandwiched between the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc (P7) and Lewis Hamilton (P9).
Alex Albon (Williams) is the first to head into the pitbox in lap seventeen to swap for a set of hard tyres. He rejoins the track behind Franco Colapinto (Alpine). Albon tries to pass the Argentinian quickly and attempts an overtake. The two cars collide, and the Alpine-driver is sent spinning. For the incident Albon receives a 10-second penalty. Colapinto corrects his car and heads back on his way. Not much later other drivers head in for their pitstop. Antonelli and Leclerc head in, with Antonelli attempting to undercut Lawson. Lawson heads in a couple of laps later, and manages to stay just ahead of the Italian. A lap later Antonelli pulls off the move and swaps positions with Lawson. As the rest of the grid battle for position, the race leader is in another post code. Halfway through the race, Max is almost eight seconds ahead of the driver in second. GianPero Lambiase, his engineer, compliments his driving: “This is brilliant pace, mate.”
In lap 28 Sainz ducks into the pits. The remaining race leaders, Max, Russell, Tsunoda and Norris bide their time – all four continue their race. Finally in lap 37, Norris heads into the pits. Disaster follows him there, and the McLaren driver has another slow pitstop (4.1 seconds), fresh off his calamitous pitstop at the Italian Grand Prix. Safe from Norris’ challenge, Tsunoda also takes the opportunity to change out his tyres. Oracle Red Bull Racing delivers an excellent pit stop, and the Japanese driver rejoins the grid ahead of Norris. In lap 39 Russell heads into the pitbox. Mercedes are quick, and Russell emerges ahead of Sainz on the track, taking second place. Finally, Max heads in for his tyre change in lap 41. With a hefty lead on the next car in the race, he has all the time he needs and remains the race leader when he returns to the track. The Dutchman has switched to a set of used mediums. With just eight laps to go, the world champion leads the race ahead of Russell, Sainz and Antonelli. Lawson, Tsunoda and Norris are in the fight for fifth position.
Behind Lawson a DRS-train begins, involving Tsunoda, Norris and Hamilton. In the last lap Norris tries to overtake Tsunoda, but the Brit is unsuccesful. He has to settle for seventh position. After 51 laps, Martin Garrix gets to wave the checkered flag as close friend Max crosses the line. After a dominant race, Max comes home with 14 seconds lead to the next car. He’s joined on the podium by Russell and Sainz.
