Verstappen reveling as season swings back Red Bull’s way

Max Verstappen says his Red Bull Racing car is performing better than it has all season after winning back-to-back grands prix for the first time since last June.

Verstappen controlled the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole and setting the fastest lap for his sixth career grand slam. He’s only the second driver to win the Baku race more than once, following former teammate Sergio Perez.

The victory follows a similarly dominant win in Italy two weeks ago, where he claimed victory by the biggest margin of the season. Asked whether this was the best his RB21 had felt this year, having claimed his sixth pole on route to his fourth victory, the Dutchman replied in the affirmative.

“Together with Monza, yep,” he said. “Monza has never really been a particularly strong track for us, so to do that, that was already a big plus.

“For me here in Baku, it’s been all right but never amazing, apart from maybe 2021 and 2022, but the rest has always been a bit difficult. So to have a weekend like this, it was very important.”

• RACE REPORT: Verstappen reigns supreme in Baku

It wasn’t just about the result for the reigning champion; it was also about the way he was able to build up to Sunday and then run what he described as a “pretty straightforward” race.

“Overall just a great weekend for us,” he said. “I’m very happy with how the race was going – I mean, I could go very long in that first stint. The car was doing pretty much what I wanted it to do.

“We just stayed out until basically everyone pitted, and then there were only a few laps left on the medium, clearing a few backmarkers, which took a bit of time. But after that, just bringing it home.

“For us that’s another just great result. A bit unusual – this season has been really swinging left and right, but at least now two weekends in a row, it’s been going really well.”

Two races is enough of a trend for McLaren boss Andrea Stella, who suspects the upgrade brought to the Red Bull Racing car in Italy has reset the pecking order and made Verstappen a regular victory contender again.

Baku and Monza are two of the most extreme circuits on the calendar. Both are dominated by long straights, though their corner profiles are different. Verstappen cautioned that a larger sample size was needed before drawing conclusions on Red Bull Racing’s resurgence.

“It’s difficult to say at the moment,” he said. “But for sure the last two race weekends have been amazing for us. Singapore [the next race] is a completely different challenge again with the high downforce, so we'll see what we can do there.”

But the Dutchman gave shorter shrift to the idea that his reduced 69-point deficit to title leader Oscar Piastri made him a championship contender again.

“I don’t rely on hope,” he said. “But it’s seven rounds left. Sixty-nine points is a lot, so I personally don’t think about it.

“I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season, just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can, and then after Abu Dhabi we’ll know.”