Red Bull’s lead in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship has disappeared.
McLaren took over the top spot with Oscar Piastri’s victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday. Piastri defended superbly against polesitter Charles Leclerc in the final 15 laps and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed out in the closing laps while battling Carlos Sainz for third place.
Red Bull went into the race with an eight-point lead over McLaren. That lead is now 30 points behind thanks to Perez’s crash and Lando Norris’s drive to fourth. Norris was eliminated in the first lap of qualifying on Saturday and had to start 15th.
Norris started the race on the hard compound tyre and ran long on his first stint before switching to the medium tyres to end the race. The opposite strategy put him ahead of Max Verstappen, the man he is chasing for the drivers’ title.
Verstappen eventually finished fifth and brought the only points of the day for Red Bull. Perez is very good in Baku and would finish at worst fourth on lap 50 of the 51 lap race. But when he raced the two Ferrari drivers Leclerc and Sainz, he hit Sainz and the two hit the wall.
