Max Verstappen celebrates ‘incredible pace’ of Red Bull at Azerbaijan Grand Prix after win in Baku

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said his team had ‘incredible pace’ as he took another win in the 2022 season in Baku.

The Austrian team took a one-two victory in Azerbaijan on Sunday after Ferrari suffered a catastrophic double-DNF through Carlos Sainz first and then Charles Leclerc, who lost pole position to Sergio Perez at turn one.

Speaking after the race, Verstappen reflected on victory at a track he had to retire from last year.

“You can never make up for what we lost last year, but today we had incredible pace in the car and we could look after the tyres and chip away at it,” he told Sky Sports.

“We were a tiny bit lucky because of the retirement but nevertheless our car was really quick today, so I could have closed that gap, then you have a race on your hands.

“Overall, really happy with how the balance of the car was today.”

Asked about what brought victory this time, he said: “I don’t know – maybe tyre behaviour and general grip of the car? That’s what you need around here so you can look after your tyres. To have a one-two as a team as well, it was a really good day for us.”

“Every weekend is a bit different. You really have to be precise – it can swing around every race.”

There had been tension in the team ahead of the race but teammate Perez was content to see the current champion win.

The Mexican said: “Unfortunately we missed the virtual safety car stop – there was some miscommunication and in the end it was a bit too late. We were a bit unlucky there because that would have made our race when we were leading.

“The degradation was extremely high on that medium tyre, it is something we have to understand what happened there because certainly Max was a lot stronger today on that medium stint.

“There are a lot of things we have to review from today but still a very good team result.

“I think it was the right call by the team because at that time Max was a bit further ahead. It’s a good team result.

“In this place anything can happen. At the end of the day we managed to do a one-two so it’s a great team result.”