Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Photo by Darko Bandic from The Associated Press

After a snoozer in Madrid, leave it to Baku to bring us a thriller!

Here are the winners & losers from a fairly chaotic race in Azerbaijan.

Losers

5. Aston Martin

You know. I thought they were turning the corner.

That’s on me, frankly.

Another double DNF.

4. Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas is fighting for his seat in Formula 1.

His car having a software glitch giving him more power and crashing him into the wall is not going to help things!

3. Kimi Antonelli

He finished 5th and has a sizable championship lead, so it’s not the end of the world.

But a crash in qualifying put him on the very back foot, and let his teammate and championship rival get the win and gain some ground in the title fight.

2. Lando Norris & Pierre Gasly

Lando and Pierre were having quite a good race, but unfortunately, their races were ruined when someone broke a little too late and smashed into both of them.

1. Franco Colapinto

And that brings us to Franco Colapinto, who has actually been very good this year.

But he made a crucial error which cost him his race, his teammates race, and, considering the brutality of Alpine team boss Flavio Briatore, maybe a spot in the race in Malaysia.

That’s one costly accident.

Winners

5. Carlos Sainz

To say that this has been a difficult season for Williams would be a massive understatement.

But Carlos Sainz was able to have a good clean race and finish in the points.

It’s something!

4. Arvid Lindblad

Did he crash into his teammate and ruin his race? Possibly.

But he wasn’t penalized for it, and he finished 7th.

So in the eyes of the stewards, he did nothing wrong, and got a solid points finish.

I’ll let you be the judge on if that’s the case or not.

3. Isack Hadjar

After missing a couple of weeks with an injured wrist, Isack Hadjar hopped back into his Red Bull seat and drove his way to a podium finish.

Welcome back, Isack.

2. Haas

Double points for Haas!

Yeah, it happened because three cars got taken out, but it’s still double points for Haas!

1. George Russell

If Russell wants to compete for the title, he has to claw his way back slowly but surely.

A dominating weekend and win in Baku is a hell of a way to do it.

He needs to stop doing the T pose thing, though.

I’m getting sick of it.