Max Verstappen on Sunday won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to capture a win for the second consecutive race. George Russell finished second and Carlos Sainz was third. Meanwhile, both McLaren and Ferrari had somewhat disastrous weekends.
In a weekend where McLaren was hoping to clinch the constructors’ championship, Oscar Piastri not only crashed out of Q3, but he also crashed on the opening on the opening lap. On the other hand, although Lando Norris did not crash in qualifying, he qualified and finished seventh.
Ferrari had similar woes with Lewis Hamilton failing to make it out of Q2, and Charles Leclerc crashing out of Q3. However, they were able to somewhat salvage the race by finishing the race eighth and ninth, respectively.
As a result, Mercedes was able to claim second place with Ferrari trailing by four points and Red Bull by 18.
Although the firing of Christian Horner was sudden and took may by surprise, it seems to have catalyzed the group as shown by the team’s recent success.
While McLaren still holds a large lead in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, if McLaren’s struggles persist, Verstappen may be able to leapfrog Norris, who currently sits in second place in the drivers’ championship, and even challenge Piastri for the drivers’ championship.
