Max Verstappen appeared to disbelieve any notion that he might have won the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix had he started higher up the grid.
The Dutchman started the race at the Baku City Circuit eighth, and was quickly up to third after scything past Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.
Amid his chase of Oscar Piastri, Verstappen struggled to maintain pace to challenge, and in turn, held up teammate Isack Hadjar behind him.
But a double Safety Car period ensured his opportunity to challenge leader George Russell, but finished the race second, just under two tenths from Russell at the line.
Asked if he felt he could have challenged Russell significantly had he qualified higher, Verstappen told media “we should have done that,” but conceded Russell’s race pace would have been hard to overcome regardless.
“You know, you have a problem and that means that you have to start P8. But I think even if I started second, I think the pace of George, it would have been very hard to pass,” he said.
“So maybe I could have followed him a bit better, of course, then in that first stint.”
“Then you box your second behind and then probably we would have done the same race, just pushing each other along. It would have for sure made my first stint a bit easier instead of overtaking all the cars that I had to.
Russell problem made Baku finish look closer – Max Verstappen
Verstappen revealed that the first Safety Car period, triggered by an Alex Albon shunt, “came at the right time,” having struggled hugely on his starting set of Mediums, which caused the backing up of Hadjar behind.
“And then the Safety Car actually came at the right time to swap to the Soft tyres,” he said. “And then I have to say that, yeah, those last laps were very enjoyable because there was barely any deg really. We were just pushing to the end and the gap was always like one second, 1.1. So yeah, that was nice.”
Verstappen began the final lap over a second off Russell, but closed up in the final corner and on the run to the finish line, but admitted that he would not have caught him without the Mercedes’ turbo momentarily costing the Briton speed.
“And of course, it looked close on the line, but I think that was more because I think George suffered from a little bit of boost lag in 15 with the yellow flag,” he said. “So if you look at the last stint, it was always one second.
“So that’s probably also where we would have finished.”
Verstappen will now head to Sepang for Malaysia’s hosting of the Bahrain Grand Prix, closer to a victory in 2026 than ever before.
READ MORE – F1 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Race Results
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