Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Max Verstappen fell second to his teammate at yet another street circuit, as he saw his championship advantage cut to just six points after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Dutchman, who started on the front-row at Baku for the first time in eight starts at the track, took the lead off Charles Leclerc early on and looked untroubled during the early part of the race.
An untimely pitstop under a safety car caused by Nyck De Vries meant Verstappen dropped to fourth before the restart. He would eventually recover to second, but never looked like challenging Sergio Perez for the win.
Talking about his luck after the race, Verstappen said: “Of course, the safety car was a bit unlucky and then I had to push again, I tried to stay very close to try and get into the DRS. The tyres were overheating a bit because of that, trying to follow.”
With just one practice session to prepare a setup for this weekend’s action, some drivers struggled to deal with a tricky balance this weekend, and Verstappen was no exception.
“But also the balance, I was struggling to be really consistent, so I was playing around with the tools a little bit,” he said.
“And I think once I got that sorted, I would say the last 10 laps were actually quite good again, but just a little bit too late.”
With a return to Formula One’s normal weekend format at next week’s Miami Grand Prix, Red Bull will have the opportunity to better Verstappen’s setup before Parc Ferme comes into effect on Saturday.
Four races in to the season, is it fair to presume that this might be the year that Sergio Perez can finally step up to the plate and challenge his teammate? Find out when FP1 starts at 7.30pm BST on Friday.
