Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Photo from Motorsport.com
Qualifying at Baku was one of the craziest qualifying sessions I can remember.
The race itself? One of the most boring.
Here are the winners and losers from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Losers
5. Alpine
It’s one thing for the car to be slow, which it is.
It’s another thing for both drivers to crash out of qualifying themselves, ruining their weekend and not even giving themselves a chance to get out of qualifying.
It’s been a miserable year for the French team.
4. Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both showed they had the pace this weekend in practice.
And then, in typical Ferrari fashion, Lewis Hamilton ruined it by missing Q3, a Charles Leclerc ruined it by crashing out in Q3.
Another missed opportunity.
3. Alex Albon
Williams had the pace, which was obvious considering Carlos Sainz, but Albon didn’t have a chance to show it, crashing his Williams on the first corner of his first qualifying lap.
He had a good drive to get it to up to 12th, but still a missed opportunity for good points.
2. Lando Norris
I struggled really hard on whether to put Lando at first or second here, but he did chip away at his teammate’s championship lead, so I feel he has to be 2nd.
Still, Oscar Piastri gave him a wide open goal to break through and have a dominant weekend after crashing out in qualifying, and Norris could only put the car 7th.
And then after Piastri crashed on the first lap, he still only finished 7th and gained just 6 points on Piastri.
It’s a bit of points, but it’s not good enough when he had a chance to capitalize in the way he did Sunday.
1. Oscar Piastri
This was the worst weekend I can remember Piastri having in Formula 1. It was just an absolute disaster.
No pace. Crash in qualifying. Jumped the start. Crashed halfway through the first lap.
Just absolutely terrible.
And yet, he still lost less points to his rival than if Norris had won the race and he finished 2nd.
Maybe it should be a 1a-1b situation.
Winners
5. George Russell
Shows up.
Does kind of nothing of note.
Gets a podium.
George Russell is consistent, that’s for sure.
4. Yuki Tsunoda
Tsunoda is fighting for his Formula 1 life, so the Red Bull driver finishing 6th and having really good defense all race to keep Lando Norris behind is a good show of form going forward.
Will it save him? I’m not sure. But it can’t hurt.
3. Liam Lawson
The beginning of this season was so horrid for Liam Lawson that I wondered if he was even good enough for Formula 1.
After all, he was horrid at Red Bull and then was comprehensively beaten by his rookie teammate Isaak Hadjar at VCARB.
But it was just a confidence thing, and now that it’s been back for some time, he’s been excellent.
Baku was another great sign of that, qualifying 3rd and finishing 5th for a big chunk of points.
He belongs for sure.
2. Max Verstappen
Back to back wins for Verstappen puts him 69 points behind Oscar Piastri for the championship lead.
Surely he won’t catch him though.
Right…?
Probably not, but the fact that it is even a question considering how bad that Red Bull car is shows how fantastic he is, and how great he’s been all year.
1. Carlos Sainz
Sainz is a really good driver who has been cast aside multiple times due to teams getting “better drivers.”
It happened at Renault with Daniel Ricciardo, and it happened again with Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton.
But Sainz has stayed consistently strong his whole career, helped revitalize McLaren, and is now helping revitalize Williams, getting them their first podium since Baku 2017.
I’m glad he and Albon have turned around the fortunes of Williams.
The sport is better when Williams is good.
