Just on the track, then back into the pits: “Oh, it just hurts,” says Charles Leclerc after the technical failure.
Image: Reuters
Verstappen wins lonely in Azerbaijan, Leclerc’s red car is on strike. After that he seems powerless: How tenable are his title dreams?
Charles Leclerc weakly raises his hand and waves vaguely towards the Caspian Sea. The Ferrari driver, who started from pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, has to tow his company car back to the pits after 20 of 51 laps, trailing behind him a cloud of blue-grey smoke that indicates engine failure. A major glitch, like the one that afflicted teammate Carlos Sainz after just nine laps. What a fiasco. But in the Monegasque’s case, the implications are far more dramatic. The second technical failure within three Formula 1 races not only has an impact on the result of the eighth World Championship round. It could also decide the championship early on in the direction of rivals Red Bull Racing. A few weeks ago, Leclerc was 46 points ahead, now after Max Verstappen’s fifth win of the season he is 34 points behind the Dutchman, whose biggest rival is currently team-mate Sergio Perez, although he finishes more than 20 seconds behind in Baku . The Mexican is now, 21 points behind, second in the World Cup ahead of Leclerc. Third in the race is Mercedes driver George Russell ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who the fans vote for as driver of the day.
“It was a very good race”
Winner Verstappen, who with his 25th Grand Prix victory draws level with Niki Lauda and Jim Clark in the all-time statistics, crosses the finish line laughing and chuckling, asks heretical at the command post: “Was that a good race or not?” You can almost hear the grin in the words of team boss Christian Horner: “That was a very good race. And a brilliant result.” But the focus is not on Verstappen’s callousness, but rather on the challenger’s bitterness and Ferrari’s involuntary return to the breakdown racing team.