Verstappen goes "race by race" instead of thinking about the championship
Despite his utterly dominant performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, reigning champion Max Verstappen stressed that he will go "race by race" instead of thinking about the championship.
Max Verstappen grabbed a surprise pole position yesterday in highly challenging conditions, and he managed to convert it into an utterly dominant victory.
The Dutchman had a great launch off the line, but had to control things due to an early safety car interruption. The SC was deployed for championship leader, Oscar Piastri.
The Australian suffered a disastrous opening lap, jumping the lights and then activating anti-stall from P9 before crashing out at Turn 5 having dropped to the back of the field.
After the safety car interruption, Verstappen had everything under control, leading all 51 laps and winning by over 14 seconds from Mercedes' George Russell. The Briton initially dropped back to fifth, but he managed to display brilliant pace on his hard tyres, extending his first stint, and rejoined the track second after his sole pit stop.
Asked to comment on his victory, Verstappen said: "I think overall, just a great weekend for us. I think for sure, you know, starting up front was key, especially in the beginning, just managing your tyres to go long. But, yeah, overall, 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. Just how much you commit, right, to push around here, which is not always easy with the layout of the track, the wind as well. It was quite tough today with that. But, yeah, 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. And 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."
Assessing his car's performance, Verstappen revealed that he was surprised to see his RB21 perform well on tracks like Monza and Baku which have been
"I guess together with Monza. Yep. Monza has never really been a particularly strong track for us, so to do that, that was already a big plus," the Dutchman continued.
"And I guess all in all for me here in Baku, it’s been alright, but never amazing — apart from maybe '21, '22, I guess. But the rest has always been a bit difficult. So, yeah, to have a weekend like this, it was very important.
Verstappen started on Pirelli's hard compound which is an unusual step from a driver who starts from the pole, but Verstappen thinks it was the right call to make.
"Well, not so much from knowing how good it would be. It’s more like the start or an untimely Safety Car. So as soon as we crossed, like, 20 laps into the race, I was a bit happier, but it was a bit of a risk. I think it’s a bit unusual, of course, when you’re on pole, to start on the hardest compound that is available.
"But we did it, and I think it was the right call. We said before the race, well, one way or another one strategy will work, and we’ll come out of the race happy with it. Luckily, we chose the right one.
Having been over 90 points away from championship leader Oscar Piastri before the Baku round, Verstappen now finds himself 69 points adrift of the Australian.
"I mean, I don’t rely on hope. But it’s seven rounds left – 69 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."
