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Max Verstappen’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend swung from qualifying trouble to a late charge to second place in Baku. After a power-unit problem, a battery issue in Q3 and yellow flags left him eighth on the grid, Verstappen said his Red Bull lacked straight-line speed, lacked top speed and was not robust enough to handle the setbacks. He had topped final practice and been second in both Q1 and Q2, but said qualifying turned into “a disaster.”

Verstappen recovered quickly in the race, climbing from eighth to third in seven laps and running the opening stint behind Oscar Piastri. A team order involving teammate Isack Hadjar featured in Red Bull’s race management, and after Alex Albon’s crash brought out another safety car, Red Bull switched Verstappen to soft tires, which he said made the car much faster. Hadjar finished third, giving Red Bull its first double podium since the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix.

Verstappen chased George Russell in the closing laps and said he was trying everything, with low tire degradation allowing him to push flat out, even if that meant brushing the walls. He finished second, with sources differing on the margin: one said he was 0.196 seconds behind Russell, while another put the gap at about one-tenth. Verstappen said a better grid position would not have changed the result much, though it would have made his first stint easier. He added that Russell’s Mercedes had enough race pace to stay ahead, even after Russell lost time to turbo lag and a late yellow flag.

McLaren left the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku without a point after a weekend that exposed pace and reliability problems on a circuit where straight-line speed mattered. Team principal Andrea Stella said the car was still losing time to Mercedes on the straights because of drag and overall package limitations, and that the lack of speed put both drivers under pressure and contributed to mistakes. McLaren also dealt with practice reliability issues, including a power problem on Lando Norris’s car that the team linked to fuel-injection behavior, and the crew even used cable ties to hold Oscar Piastri’s car together after bargeboards came loose on Friday.

The team’s struggles carried into qualifying, even though Piastri salvaged third place and Norris qualified fifth. Piastri said McLaren found unexpected pace after a difficult start to the weekend and that the car only came alive on low fuel, but he also said the team was a long way off Mercedes after George Russell took pole by more than eight-tenths of a second. Norris said he had to push harder to make up for McLaren’s straight-line deficit, while both drivers said Baku’s long straights and limited overtaking would make the race difficult.

McLaren’s race then unraveled. Piastri ran strongly early, briefly moving up to second, but a Turn 1 lock-up at the second restart flat-spotted his tires, sent him into the run-off and dropped him to 14th. Norris, who had started fifth and was running a soft-tyre strategy, was caught in the chaos after a Turn 1 collision between Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly at the safety-car restart and hit the barriers. Stella said McLaren was partly responsible for Piastri’s error, saying the lack of straight-line speed added pressure and led to inaccuracies and mistakes, as the team’s strong run from earlier in the season gave way to a scoreless day in Baku.

FIA stewards cleared Arvid Lindblad of blame after his collision with Liam Lawson during the first Safety Car restart of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, saying the incident was caused by a chain reaction from Franco Colapinto’s earlier crash with Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. The stewards said Colapinto’s brake locking triggered the sequence, left Lindblad with restricted space between cars on either side and made the Turn 1 clash a typical first-corner restart incident with no driver predominantly to blame. Colapinto was separately penalized, with a 10-second penalty converted into a five-place grid drop for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Lawson said he did not understand why Lindblad was not penalized and said the hit was hard enough to damage his car, including a punctured floor. He said he lost power on the approach to Turn 1, was hit hard from the left, and was spun into the run-off area. The damage left Lawson classified either 12th or 15th in reports, and he said the clash hurt Racing Bulls’ race. Lindblad apologized after the incident and said Turn 1 was chaotic because of cold tires, cold brakes and a poorly managed restart, adding that he had nowhere else to go.

Lindblad recovered to finish seventh after passing Haas driver Esteban Ocon by 0.030 seconds at the line, and both Racing Bulls drivers said the result was valuable in the midfield battle. Lawson said Racing Bulls need to turn things around next week, and one report said the team still scored points while Racing Bulls and Alpine were battling for fifth in the constructors’ standings.

Franco Colapinto’s safety car restart error at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix triggered a three-car crash that eliminated him, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris, and drew a sharp rebuke from Norris, who said Colapinto should receive at least a one-race ban. Colapinto, running 10th, locked up into Turn 1 and hit Gasly in the braking zone, setting off the chain reaction that also took out Norris. Norris called the crash careless and said the FIA should be stricter with penalties for mistakes like that, adding that some drivers “shouldn’t be in Formula 1.”

Stewards gave Colapinto a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision at the restart. Because he did not finish the race, the penalty was to be converted into a grid drop for the next round. Colapinto apologized on the radio after the incident and later said he was “out of control completely” and expected a penalty.

Norris said he was already struggling with straight-line speed and had gone off at Turn 1 earlier in the race, which he described as an “impossible race” from that point of view. Colapinto remained well short of the 12 penalty points required for an F1 race ban, and Alpine had recently renewed his contract for next year.

Max Verstappen’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying unraveled after Red Bull replaced four power unit components in his car before the session, including the internal combustion engine, turbocharger, exhaust system and another power unit element. The changes did not bring a grid penalty in Baku because the parts came from his allocated pool, but Verstappen said the engine and power unit problems left him expecting to take a penalty later in the 2026 Formula 1 season. He had shown strong pace in practice and topped final practice before the trouble hit.

Verstappen said the problem began in Q1 and worsened through Q2 and Q3, leaving him short on the straights and about half a second slower than teammate Isack Hadjar. He said the issue was an internal combustion engine problem, not an electrical deployment problem, and said it also caused battery, system and misfire issues, plus unusual engine-braking behavior. A battery failure in Q3 forced him to abort a lap, which hurt tire temperature for his final attempt, and a yellow flag caused by Lando Norris added to the setback.

The setback left Verstappen eighth on the grid, 1.5 seconds behind pole-sitter George Russell and four places behind Hadjar. He said second place should have been achievable without the malfunction and criticized Red Bull for not being robust enough to handle the problems. Verstappen said Baku was not a good place to take an engine penalty because overtaking is difficult there, but he still said he hoped to pass a few cars in the race.

McLaren said its major Azerbaijan Grand Prix upgrade package worked as intended in Baku, but the team’s gains were blunted by a straight-line speed deficit on a circuit with few medium- and high-speed corners. The team brought revised sidepods, engine cover, floor, diffuser, rear suspension and rear wing to the weekend, and Andrea Stella said data showed the updates produced the expected aerodynamic load and performance. Even so, Stella and Lando Norris said Baku’s long straights and overall drag would make the circuit a difficult test for McLaren, which lacked the top speed to match Mercedes.

McLaren’s weekend began with practice problems, including reliability issues for both Oscar Piastri and Norris and a situation on Friday that forced the team to use cable ties to hold Piastri’s car together after bargeboards came loose. Norris was down in 14th after first practice and called the car “miles off” in pace, though he said it felt acceptable to drive. Piastri said the car only came alive once fuel loads dropped for qualifying, and he described his third place as a surprise after McLaren had looked off the pace earlier in the weekend.

Piastri qualified third with a 1:43.364 lap, one thousandth of a second behind Charles Leclerc and 0.001 seconds off the front row, while George Russell took pole for Mercedes. Norris qualified fifth after a lockup on his final Q3 lap, and he said car issues and a straight-line speed deficit cost him time. Stella said McLaren was investigating a likely fuel-injection-related power problem on Norris’s car, and Norris said Russell was 11.5 km/h faster than him on the straights. Piastri said McLaren’s race pace looked stronger than its one-lap pace, but both drivers said overtaking would be difficult and Sunday’s race was likely to be chaotic.

Red Bull’s final major RB22 upgrade brought an encouraging step forward in Baku, where Isack Hadjar returned from a wrist injury and qualified fourth for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Hadjar said the car felt better than when he left it in Hungary, with improved balance and better cornering, though Red Bull still lacked Mercedes’ straight-line speed. The five-part package, Red Bull’s last major update of the season, included changes to the floor, diffuser and sidepods and was aimed at improving downforce and efficiency. Technical director Pierre Wache called the update positive, while saying Mercedes looked ahead on short runs and McLaren appeared similar to Red Bull.

Hadjar said he still had speed to find, but he was pleased to be near the front after easing back into the limit and taking few risks on Baku’s tight street circuit. He said the walls and his condition made him cautious, and he pointed to Red Bull’s recent struggles on race starts as a possible factor in Sunday’s race. A clean launch into Turn 1, he said, could leave him in a strong position.

Max Verstappen’s qualifying turned into a struggle after engine and battery problems left him eighth on the grid, his worst qualifying result since he started 11th in Japan in April. Verstappen said he lacked top speed throughout the session, was about half a second down on the straights compared with Hadjar, and then lost a lap in Q3 when the battery would not charge properly, which hurt tire temperature for his final attempt. He also blamed a yellow flag from Lando Norris for adding to the setback. Verstappen said a front-row start had been realistic before the problems, called Baku Red Bull’s best chance to win in 2026, and still planned to fight for the podium.