Max Verstappen will look for an improved personal and team performance this weekend when Red Bull seek to stop the rot and stay on top in the Formula One title race at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After a run of six races without a win that has coincided with the revival of his rivals, the Dutchman arrives in Baku with a 62-point lead in the drivers’ championship ahead of Lando Norris. His team’s advantage ahead of McLaren has also been trimmed to only eight points.

Verstappen’s and Red Bull’s last victory, his 61st, came at the Spanish Grand Prix in June while team-mate Sergio Perez last won on the streets of Baku, claiming his sixth career triumph and second in Azerbaijan in last year’s race.

Red Bull’s supreme domination that has seen them leading the constructors’ championship for more than two years, since the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix, will end if McLaren outscore them by nine points on Sunday.

In the aftermath of Aston Martin’s glossy unveiling of Red Bull’s star designer Adrian Newey as future managing technical partner on Tuesday, another defeat to knock them off the top could be seen as significant.

Both Verstappen and Mexican Perez have been busy working on finding solutions to their slump in form since Charles Leclerc claimed victory for Ferrari at Monza on September 1.

“Monza was a tough race for us and it is our priority to get our form back to where it needs to be,” said Verstappen.

“We always want to be more competitive and the team has been working hard on the issues we’ve had.”

“We’ve had a good period of reflection and work since the last race,” said Perez. “Both Max and I have been in the factory working to ensure we are finding a fix for the problems.

“To get back to where we should be on the grid, it will take a team effort and you can see that every day in Milton Keynes. This has pulled us all together.”

Perez leaning on Baku memories

Perez finished eighth at Monza, two places behind three-time world champion Verstappen, while both Ferraris, both McLarens and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton filled the top five.

After a season of much speculation about his future at Red Bull following a string of poor results, he welcomes the return to a venue he likes.

He is the only two-time winner in Baku and has scored more points there than any other driver.

“Personally, I love to race there,” he said. “Street circuits suit my style and Baku is a fun track.”

Ferrari will also be filled with hope in Baku after their success with an upgraded car at Monza where revisions to the floor and other areas proved successful.

But team chief Fred Vasseur stressed that the team will be focused on consistency and not checking the championship standings this weekend as they chase down Red Bull and McLaren.

“We have to focus on doing a good job every weekend and if something has to come to us, it will come. It’s no good to focus on the championship and be conservative… everything can change so much from one week to the next.”

With McLaren and Mercedes both claiming wins in recent races, a close scrap on the fast and challenging street track is in prospect, with Ferrari’s reserve driver Oliver Bearman replacing Kevin Magnussen alongside Nico Hulkenberg at Haas.

Dane Magnussen has been banned after accumulating 12 penalty points.

Charles Leclerc won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday to delight Ferrari’s massed ranks of fans as Lando Norris again chipped away at struggling champion Max Verstappen’s lead in the Formula One drivers’ standings. Monegasque Leclerc claimed victory at Monza for the second time after winning in 2019, holding off McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Norris in a thrilling race in which Verstappen finished nearly 38 seconds off the pace in sixth. Huge roars engulfed the stands as Leclerc took the chequered flag for his second win over the season, after his own home Monaco GP, after holding out on a set of hard tyres he had changed during his one and only pit stop on the 16th lap.

“I thought that the first time would feel like this and the second time wouldn’t feel as special,” said Leclerc as he basked in the cheers of fans who made the track a joyous, noisy sea of red after the race.

“But my god the emotions in the last few laps; Monaco and Monza are the two races I want to win every year and I’ve managed to win them this year. It is so, so special.”

All of Leclerc’s major rivals, apart from teammate Carlos Sainz who ended up finishing fourth ahead of his Ferrari replacement Lewis Hamilton, pitted twice and McLaren were hoping that the Ferrari pair would do the same.

Instead Leclerc managed to keep his tyres in good enough condition to stay ahead and in the end finish the race comfortably in front of Piastri, who had taken the race lead early on after an overtake manoeuvre on Norris which was as daring as it was tactically questionable.

“Not going to lie it hurts a lot. I did a lot of things right today,” said Australian Piastri.

“Happy with the race, the pace I achieved but when you finish second it hurts.”

Verstappen woes

Briton Norris — who clocked the fastest lap right at the end — will be disappointed by his finish after starting on pole but he managed to chop Verstappen’s championship lead to 62 points with eight races remaining as his Dutch rival’s barren run continued.

“We considered (pitting once) the whole race but it was impossible with our graining. Just disappointed. Ferrari did a better job, so hats off to them,” said Norris.

Verstappen has now failed to win any of the last six GPs after claiming the honours in seven of the first 10, and his and Red Bull’s dominance of F1 looks increasingly in question.

A fourth straight world title looked a near certainty when Verstappen won in Spain back in June, but since then he has only finished on the podium twice.

And his teammate Sergio Perez finishing in eighth meant that McLaren are now only eight points behind Red Bull in the constructor’s standings and look favourites to win it for the first time since 1998.

Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto, who replaced axed Logan Sargeant for Williams following his disastrous showing at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, finish in 12th in his F1 debut.

Earlier Leonardo Fornaroli became the first Italian to win the F3 title, the 19-year-old doing so without winning a single race in this year’s championship.

Trident driver Fornaroli overtook Australian Christian Mansell on the final corner of the 10-race season to grab third place and snatch the title from Gabriele Mini by two points.

Gabriel Bortoleto won the F2 race in dramatic fashion after starting last on the grid, cutting Isack Hadjar’s lead at the top of the stands to just 10.5 points with three races remaining in the season.

Championship leader Max Verstappen clocked one minute, 21.676 seconds.© AFP

McLaren’s Lando Norris dashed to victory at the Dutch Grand Prix Sunday, a superb drive consigning home favourite Max Verstappen to his first-ever loss in front of his “Orange Army” fans. The British driver claimed his second career chequered flag after winning in Miami in May, closing Verstappen’s lead over him in the world championship to 70 points, with the Dutchman coming second. Despite raucous encouragement from a packed Zandvoort circuit, Verstappen could not extract enough from his Red Bull to compete with a recently upgraded McLaren that is beginning to look like the car to beat in Formula One.

“It feels amazing… The pace was very strong and the car was unbelievable today,” said Norris, who also secured a point for the fastest lap. 

The start was critical. Questions have been asked of the starting ability of Norris, who has three times this season failed to convert pole position into a first lap lead.

And again Norris was sluggish off the line, allowing Verstappen to power around the outside to huge cheers from the crowd, who saw their man take a 0.9-second advantage into the second lap.

Buoyed by the fast start, Verstappen clocked the quickest lap in lap two, putting clear daylight between him and the McLaren of Norris.

But the McLaren had been the fastest car in the paddock all race weekend and Norris started slowly but surely eating into Verstappen’s lead.

By lap 17 out of 72, Norris was only a few tenths of a second behind Verstappen, the Dutchman complaining on his team radio of a lack of grip from his tyres.

‘I can’t go faster’

Norris passed him a lap later on the outside at turn one, Verstappen powerless to prevent the overtake and quickly falling further behind.

“I can’t go faster. The car is not responding to my inputs,” a desperate Verstappen told his engineers as Norris stretched his advantage to more than four seconds.

On lap 25, Verstappen decided enough was enough and he needed a new set of tyres.

Norris pitted the lap after, his team taking 0.6 seconds longer than the Red Bull for the pit stop.

Nevertheless, Norris emerged from the two stops five seconds ahead of his rival and promptly produced the fastest lap of the race on his new set of tyres.

By lap 40, Norris had extended the advantage to more than 10 seconds over the three-time champion and just had to stay out of trouble to take the chequered flag.

His eventual margin of victory was 22.896 seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc holding off Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to claim the third podium spot after a thrilling battle.

Red Bull’s struggling second driver Sergio Perez finished in sixth position, meaning the gap in the constructors’ championship also narrowed from 42 points to 30.

“I wouldn’t say a perfect race because of lap one again, but afterwards it was beautiful,” said Norris.

“I expected Max to start pushing and get a bit of a gap. And he never did. So from that point, I knew we were in with a good fight,” added Norris.

“But he seemed to just keep dropping off. And my pace was getting better. So it’s a nice feeling inside the car. And especially when I got past, you know, I could just get comfortable.”

The F1 circus now moves on to the famous Monza track in Italy next weekend, round 16 of 24 with everyone snapping at Verstappen’s heels.

Verstappen has not won a Grand Prix since Barcelona in June, his longest barren spell since 2020 and while it is premature to talk of panic stations at Red Bull, the Dutch weekend will have given some cause for concern.

“You always try to do better and we had a good start, we tried everything we could today, but throughout the race it was quite clear that we are not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” said Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz announced Monday that he had signed a two-year deal to race for Williams starting from the 2025 season amid what he said was an “exceptionally complex” market for Formula One drivers. The 29-year-old Spaniard will leave Ferrari at the end of the 2024 campaign after seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was announced as his replacement at the Italian giants earlier this year. Sainz has won three F1 races so far in his career, the most recent at the Australian Grand Prix in March.

Having previously driven for Toro Rosso, Renault and McLaren, Sainz had been linked with several teams for the 2025 season including Alpine, Sauber and Mercedes.

But on Monday it was confirmed he had agreed an initial two-year deal at Williams, with an option to extend.

“I am very happy to announce that I will be joining Williams Racing from 2025 onwards,” Sainz said in a team statement.

“It is no secret that this year’s driver market has been exceptionally complex for various reasons and that it has taken me some time to announce my decision.”

He added: “However, I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to continue my F1 journey and I am extremely proud of joining such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and made their mark on our sport.

“The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity.”

Sainz will replace Logan Sargeant at Williams, where he will partner Alex Albon.

Founded in 1977 by the late Frank Williams, the team have won nine F1 Constructors’ Championships and seven drivers’ titles, with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve all crowned world champion while at Williams.

But Williams have struggled in recent seasons and last took a podium finish in 2021, while their last race victory came via Pastor Maldonado’s shock win back at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix.

“Carlos joining Williams is a strong statement of intent from both parties,” said Williams team principal James Vowles.

“Carlos has demonstrated time and again that he is one of the most talented drivers on the grid, with race-winning pedigree, and this underlines the upwards trajectory we are on.”

Max Verstappen, facing a 10-place grid penalty for taking a new engine, topped the times for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a qualifying session run in mixed wet-and-dry conditions at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday. Leclerc will start Sunday’s race from pole position as he did in 2023 with Sergio Perez alongside him in the second Red Bull, the Mexican having ended a nightmare run of qualifying failures amid reports that his future with the team is at risk.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth for Mercedes and will share the second row of the grid with McLaren’s Lando Norris, who qualified fifth ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri and George Russell in the second Mercedes.

Carlos Sainz was eighth in the second Ferrari in front of compatriot and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Esteban Ocon of Alpine and Alex Albon of Williams — who will be 10th on the grid ahead of Verstappen.

“It was a nice qualifying and luckily the weather was ok,” said Verstappen, referring to earlier heavy rain that turned final practice into a washout. “It was raining a little bit, but we could do a decent session.

“I know I have to start 10 places back so this was the best I could do today and we’ll go from there. I don’t know quick we are going to be, but I hope we can be in the mix.”

Verstappen will be bidding to win the Belgian race for the fourth consecutive year, having won previously after taking grid penalties, but his car this year lacks the same clear superiority. Last year, he won from sixth. This year he starts 11th.

“It’s exactly the same as last year and, for me, it’s good as I didn’t expect that. We had tricky conditions and the rain helped us a bit and it’s good to be back at the front of the grid,” said Leclerc.

In steady but light rain, Norris led a train of cars from the pitlane for Q1, followed by both Haas cars and his McLaren team-mate Piastri, who was forced to drop to fourth by an exit by Kevin Magnussen that he described as “dangerous”.

– Racing in the rain –

A heavy shower was forecast by McLaren and this accelerated all 20 drivers to join the fray in pursuit of an early banker lap before the conditions deteriorated. All were on intermediates as Norris clocked 1:58.894 before being beaten by Piastri, in 1:57.411.

Verstappen then took over on top in 1:56.003 with Piastri threatening and taking second before rising to take command with five minutes to go in 1:55.549, before the Dutchman regained the ascendancy.

He clocked 1:54.938 to go six-tenths clear of Piastri while Norris struggled to match him and Russell fought to survive, rising from 17th to third in the final seconds of Q1.

Taking advantage of a problem for Verstappen, who was involved in a blocking incident with Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber, Piastri took top spot again in 1:54.835 ahead of Pierre Gasly.

The early departures were taken by the two Haas men, Nico Hulkenberg and Magnussen, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who will start from the back of the grid after taking a penalty for new power unit parts, Logan Sargeant of Williams and Zhou.

Q2 began in similar fashion, with rain forecast and all 15 runners on track, Alex Albon setting the early pace for Williams before Norris took over in 1:54.459 and then Verstappen, in 1:53.857. All were on ‘inters’ again.

With five minutes to go, Russell and Leclerc, with fresh tyres, were both in the drop-zone as the rain intensified. Russell reacted by leaping to fourth followed by Leclerc, taking third, and Hamilton up fifth.

Late faster laps from Perez, Ocon and Gasly pushed the Mercedes pair to go second and third while the under-pressure Perez survived by 0.003 seconds. Albon, Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Daniel Ricciardo of RB, Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll, whose Aston Martin team had rebuilt his car after his crash in FP3, missed the cut.

Hamilton was first out for Q3 and posted a lap in 1:54.011 as a marker.

On their first runs, only the two Red Bulls beat him, Verstappen going top in 1:53.159, leaving it all down to the final laps to decide the final grid order.

George Russell is the form man in Formula 1 at the moment, as he grabbed a second pole position in four races to head an all-British top 3 in the British Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday. Russell finished 0.171s ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who qualified P2. McLaren’s Lando Norris slotted in third, despite being the favourite going into qualifying. His teammate Oscar Piastri qualified P5. It was a disappointing day for Max Verstappen by his standards, as he qualified only fourth. But how did Mercedes come out on top?

Wet weather the secret to Mercedes success

Not for the first time in 2024, the Mercedes came alive in cooler conditions. Much like the Canadian GP when Russell grabbed pole, a wet-to-dry qualifying session suited the Mercedes car during qualifying, making them the team to beat on the soft tyre runs.

Championship leader Max Verstappen went off into the gravel in Q1, and a possible loss of downforce from that incident meant that the Dutchman was never really in contention for pole.

With rain on the cards on Sunday, George Russell will be eyeing up a second successive win, after his Austrian GP success last weekend.

Watch out for Hamilton, Norris

Lewis Hamilton is an eight-time winner at Silverstone, and no driver drives the circuit quite like the seven-time world champion. Starting on the front row, Hamilton, for once in 2024, will not have to rue a poor qualifying result.

Lando Norris in the McLaren is likely to also take the fight to the two Silver Arrows. In recent weekends, the McLaren has been the fastest car on raceday.

Day to forget for Ferrari

Ferrari have abruptly fallen behind Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes, proved by the fact that Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas outqualified Carlos Sainz. The day was even worse for Charles Leclerc, who failed to make it to Q3.

Lance Stroll (P8) also outqualified Fernando Alonso (P10) in the Aston Martin team.

Earlier in the day, Sergio Perez beached it in the gravel in Q1, meaning it was yet another Q1 elimination for the Mexican.

British GP Qualifying Top 10: 1. George Russell, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Lando Norris, 4. Max Verstappen, 5. Oscar Piastri, 6. Nico Hulkenberg, 7. Carlos Sainz, 8. Lance Stroll, 9. Alex Albon, 10. Fernando Alonso.

McLaren driver Lando Norris fought right to the end, but it was Max Verstappen who won his seventh race of the season at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix. The gap between the two drivers were separated by only 2.2 seconds at the chequered flag, after a valiant push from the British driver, to close the gap from more than eight seconds at one point. Mercedes finished third and fourth for the second consecutive race, but this time, Lewis Hamilton grabbed his first Grand Prix podium of 2024.

At the start of the race, George Russell went from fourth to first in the first turn, with an audacious move. Crucially, Verstappen also pipped pole-sitter Norris at the start. The Dutchman would soon overtake Russell on Lap 3, a move that would allow him to manage his pace and tyres at the front.

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished where they started, coming home in fifth and sixth. Leclerc was less than a second behind Russell at the end.

Home hero Fernando Alonso endured a race to forget, finishing pointless at a disappointing 12th place. 

Russell was ahead of Norris and Hamilton for most of the race. However, Mercedes’ decision to put hard tyres on his final stint proved to be the wrong choice, as he slipped down the podium places.

Sainz also spent most of the race ahead of Leclerc, having overtaken him in Lap 2. However, he also fell victim to the hard tyres.

Oscar Piastri recovered from his worst qualifying of 2024 to finish seventh, while Sergio Perez got eighth. 

And it was a bright day for French constructors Alpine, as both Pierre Gasly (P9) and Esteban Ocon (P10) finished in the points. 

Verstappen continues to lead the championship standings, now going 70 points in front of everyone. Norris, however, has leapfrogged Leclerc to second.

The F1 circus next heads to Austria, for the Austrian GP, on June 30.

McLaren’s Lando Norris (centre) took pole position for the Spanish GP.© AFP

Charles Leclerc admitted he was fighting back tears and struggling to see as he raced to an emotional victory for Ferrari in his home Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday. His win prompted a standing ovation and unbridled celebrations from a huge crowd as he ended his run of wretched luck on home soil and a sequence of 39 races without a win since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix. Leclerc won comfortably ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz as Red Bull suffered another weekend of disappointment with series leader Max Verstappen finishing sixth and Sergio Perez crashed out on the opening lap,

His flawless triumph in a dull and processional race was the first by a Monegasque driver on the famous Mediterranean street circuit since the start of the Formula One world championship in 1950.

The last Monegasque to win a Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo was Louis Chiron in 1931.

In six previous attempts, including two when he started on pole, the luckless Leclerc had never managed a podium finish.

“It’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula One driver one day,” he said.

“And it was such a difficult race emotionally because already 15 laps to the end you are just hoping nothing happens, already the emotions were coming.

“I was thinking of my dad a lot more than I thought usually while driving — obviously he’s given everything for me to be here. It was our dream for me to race here and to win and so it’s unbelievable.”

He added that he had difficulty seeing clearly because of tears during the closing laps. “Not now, Charles, I said to myself. Not now. I could feel it when I came out of the tunnel near the end and I was struggling to see because I was crying a little bit,” he revealed.

His father Herve died in 2017.

“No words can explain. It’s such a difficult race, I think the fact that twice I’ve started in pole position and we couldn’t quite make it makes it even better in a way, it means a lot obviously.

“It’s really difficult, at first, I thought we had quite a lot of margin, but we knew there was 78 laps to do on the same tyre which was very difficult.

“We did a great management of the tyres, there was a big part of the race where we had to manage the gap with George and in the last ten laps I called to push a bit more and the car felt amazing.

“I want to thank the team who have done incredible work over the last few months and for giving me the opportunity to finally win this race is a very special feeling.”

He added that he had been given encouragement before the race by the support from the crowd.

“A huge thank you to the fans, the parade laps were special and seeing so many of my friends and people I know in the balcony, it was just very special. This one means a lot.”

During his slow-down lap, he told Ferrari: “Tonight – this is going to be a big night!”

He revealed to a global tv audience that he would be partying at Jimmy’z night club and wanted a discount. “I am going to party like an animal,” he added.