Author: Giles Richards

• Red Bull driver leads from pole to flag to cut title lead

• Piastri out on first lap but Norris can finish only seventh

Oscar Piastri damned his own performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as characterised by lapses in judgment and silly mistakes, but the world championship leader still emerged from the crash that left the front of the Australian’s car in pieces with the bulk of his title advantage intact – and on such fortune might this season yet turn.

Max Verstappen won the race in Baku with another dominant run from pole to flag to match his victory at the last round in Monza and with it bring the very slenderest suggestion that he may still be in the championship battle.

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• Session marred by driver mishaps, rain and six red flags

• McLaren drivers make big errors in marathon session

Misjudgment and error left Formula One’s leading lights flailing on the streets of Baku, but Max Verstappen delivered pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with the control and precision execution that was a salutary reminder of the mental strength that backs his undoubted talent.

Verstappen took the top spot after a dramatic and chaotic session on the testing street circuit, interrupted by a record six red-flag stoppages due to crashes. It concluded with a grid turned upside down and the two world championship rivals, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, left languishing in seventh and ninth.

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In his first interview since replacing Christian Horner, the Frenchman says his aim is simply to give Max Verstappen the fastest car on the F1 grid

Reaching the pinnacle of any sport might be considered a moment to savour and reflect. To luxuriate even, in the contentment so sparingly yielded at the highest level. None of which, strikingly, is the case for Laurent Mekies, the new team principal of Red Bull, who concedes only to an overwhelming, almost Sisyphean, commitment to moving ever forward, ever upward.

“There is no such thing as having made it, you always feel you are surviving,” he says. “You always feel that you should have done more yesterday, more a week ago. To step up next week, next month. You never feel you made it – never, never, never.”

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• Piastri says drivers not team will decide outcome of title

• Comments follow controversial swap by McLaren

Oscar Piastri has insisted that he and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, are in control of their own destiny as they fight for the Formula One world championship after the pair were involved in a highly controversial swap imposed by the team at the Italian Grand Prix.

Given the pair are in a two-horse race for the title, the question of team orders playing a potentially decisive role loomed large after Monza. Max Verstappen won the race but McLaren’s decision to have Piastri return second place to Norris, after the British driver lost the position due to a slow pit stop caused by a faulty wheel gun, was contentious.

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Returning from the summer break and with 10 races to go, there are plenty of targets remaining across the paddock besides McLaren’s shootout

Revitalised after the summer break, 10 races remain between this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix and the finale in Abu Dhabi in December – and it will be Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris going head to head for the title.

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Forty years ago, the 25-year-old Brazilian produced possibly the finest drive of his career, and it’s still vivid in the mind of his mechanic Chris Dinnage

As debut victories in Formula One go, few come close to the masterclass delivered by Ayrton Senna for Lotus at the Portuguese Grand Prix in 1985. A drive which still stands 40 years later as one of the defining moments of the Brazilian’s extraordinary career, not least when witnessed first-hand by No 1 mechanic in Estoril, Chris Dinnage.

“It was an exceptional performance by a gifted racing driver who had one mission and that was to win, to be the best,” says Dinnage. “I think there’s very few races since where you could say someone had such a command of what they were doing.”

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Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have set up a potentially thrilling title race, Gabriel Bortoleto is one to watch, and Lewis Hamilton needs time off

Oscar Piastri Leading the world championship and has earned his place at the top. He has not only been quick in the best car on the grid, but consistent and calm. This has not been the stuff of fireworks, but relentless precision. His execution and attitude have no little of the Alain Prost about them and he is shaping up to be a similarly formidable opponent as The Professor.

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• ‘A shame for everyone,’ Red Bull driver insists

• George Russell says FIA ‘made the right call’

Max Verstappen condemned as unne­ces­sary the FIA decision to delay the start of the Belgian Grand Prix because of adverse weather conditions, but his view was countered by George ­Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, who insisted any other call from the ­governing body would have been “stupidity” given the conditions and the dan­gerous nature of the Spa‑Francorchamps circuit.

The start was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes after rain swept into Spa just before the race. The FIA opted not to proceed after one formation lap because the visibility given the spray from the cars was so poor. The circuit is enormously fast and challenging and can be dangerous even in good conditions. There have been two fatalities in recent years, Anthoine Hubert in 2019 and Dilano van ’t Hoff in 2023.

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Bringing in a new team principal when developing a car for 2026 regulations might not be to world champion’s liking

Even as the reverberations from the shock sacking of Christian Horner as team principal of Red Bull are still being felt across Formula One and their thunderous echo remains, whether all this sound and fury will have been quite enough to keep Max Verstappen at the team remains a moot point.

When it was announced on Wednesday that Horner had been released from his post as team principal and chief executive of Red Bull after 20 years in charge and enormous success, pivotal to the decision was seemingly the desire to prevent the four-time world champion from being tempted away. Horner’s removal a price the parent company was willing to pay.

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Departure now leaves a question mark about the next chapter of one of the sport’s extraordinary success stories

The removal of Christian Horner from his post as team principal at Red Bull represents both the end of an era in Formula One and, in the short term, the most turbulent period in the team’s history. It carries an import that will be felt right across the sport, a significance in how it played out and what happens next as the team Horner built and led to such enormous success faces an uncertain future.

Horner has been at Red Bull since the team was formed in 2005 from the ashes of Jaguar, a team in no little disarray when Red Bull bought it. Horner was at the helm as it was transformed from an operation of 450 personnel, without so much as a win to their name, to one of 1,500 today that has won eight drivers’ titles and six constructors’ championships, and is one of the most extraordinary success stories in F1 history.

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• Laurent Mekies appointed as Horner’s replacement

• Red Bull have had turbulent time on and off track

Christian Horner has been sacked as Red Bull’s team principal with immediate effect. Horner, who has been in charge of Red Bull since the team was formed in 2005, will be replaced by the principal of sister team Racing Bulls, Laurent Mekies.

Horner’s surprise removal as principal and chief executive of Red Bull Racing was confirmed in a statement from Red Bull’s parent company on Wednesday morning and comes just over 17 months since Horner was embroiled in a scandal involving accusations of inappropriate behaviour by an employee, though he was later cleared by an investigation.

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• Dutch driver’s camp believed to have made first move

• Sky Italy say deal ‘close’ with Mercedes yet to make call

Max Verstappen’s future with Red Bull is under scrutiny with reports that talks about a move to Mercedes have intensified in the buildup to this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Speculation over Verstappen jumping ship had dominated the Austrian Grand Prix, where the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, confirmed they were considering a move to tempt the four-time champion to join the team.

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• ‘Silverstone has the right characteristics to stay for ever’

• Domenicali to raise Brexit ‘complications’ with Starmer

The Formula One chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, has said he would like the British Grand Prix at Silverstone to remain on the F1 calendar for ever, with the event set to host what is expected to be the largest meeting in the sport’s history, reaching half a million people over four days this weekend.

The British GP, which has been on the calendar since F1 began in 1950, is expected to sell out with record numbers and Domenicali acknowledged it was part of a large and thriving F1 business in Britain, which he hopes can be improved by working closer with the UK government when he meets the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and other government officials at Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon.

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F1 and Liberty Media went to great lengths to assist filming, with star’s APX team embedded within the sport

After the British Grand Prix last year the drivers took their places in the media zone to conduct interviews, with Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso among them. Yet it was all but impossible not to cast a glance sideways as Brad Pitt nonchalantly strolled out to face the microphones and cameras of his own, entirely staged, media scrum.

None of us in the media pack openly goggled at the fact that Hollywood’s A-list had joined the sweaty throng, because Pitt was there filming what would become F1 the Movie. And we, as with everyone else, were under strict instructions to behave normally.

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There was no justification for the driver’s rash and futile act of retribution at the Spanish Grand Prix

There was no justification for Max Verstappen’s rash and futile act of retribution at the Spanish Grand Prix, when he deliberately drove into the side of George Russell’s car. The world champion knows it and on Monday he admitted as much with something of a mea culpa on social media. Yet it also must be considered that it is part and parcel of what makes Verstappen so competitive, albeit in this case in an entirely unedifying and self‑defeating fashion.

Angry and frustrated at a sequence of events in Barcelona, including having to cede a place to Russell, Verstappen surrendered to his baser instincts. Having pulled over to give the place to Russell, he clearly then felt a point had to be made and accelerated back up the inside to collide with the Mercedes.

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