Red Bull’s lead in the Formula 1 constructors’ standings has evaporated.
McLaren took top spot thanks to Oscar Piastri’s victory in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Piastri fought back strongly against polesitter Charles Leclerc over the final 15 laps and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed out in the closing stages while battling for third with Carlos Sainz.
Red Bull went into the race with an eight-point lead over McLaren. That lead is now 30 points thanks to Perez’s crash and Lando Norris’s run to fourth place. Norris was eliminated in the first round of qualifying on Saturday and had to start in 15th position.
Norris started the race on hard tyres and ran hard in his first stint before switching to medium tyres to finish the race. The opposite strategy put him ahead of Max Verstappen, the man he is chasing for the drivers’ title.
Verstappen finished fifth and took home Red Bull’s only points of the day. Perez has been doing very well in Baku and was on track to finish fourth at the latest on lap 50 of the 51-lap race. But when he was racing with the two Ferrari drivers, Leclerc and Sainz, he made contact with Sainz and the two crashed into the wall.