The wait for a win in 2026 goes on for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing

Less than two tenths of a second separated Max Verstappen from his first victory of the season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

It looked as though, heading into the final lap, he was too far behind Mercedes’ George Russell but the Dutchman capitalised on a crash from Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas in the final sector to close the gap to the Brit to less than a second heading onto the final straight.

But despite closing within two tenths at the line, the wait for a win in 2026 goes on.

It was a strong race-day for Milton Keynes-based Red Bull, making up for Verstappen’s disappointing qualifying result of eighth on the grid. However, a quick start off the line saw him leapfrog Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc before being allowed past by team-mate Isack Hadjar to move up to third.

Stuck behind Oscar Piastri’s McLaren though, Verstappen could only watch on as Russell extended a lead of ten seconds before a safety car backed the pack up. Passing Piastri at the restart, Veratappen stuck within a second of Russell for the closing stages but was unable to mount a passing move, before Bottas’ crash allowed him to get close at the death.

Having to settle for second, his seventh podium of the season, Verstappen said: “We had a very strong race today. Yesterday, we found an issue with the engine and changed it, so luckily everything was fixed.

“For most of the race we were on the medium tyre, which didn’t perform as well as expected, but we still managed to work our way up the field nicely. Once we swapped to the soft, it felt much better.

“We had a good first restart and during the last few laps with George, we were pushing flat out. We had good pace and were both pulling away from those behind.

“On the final lap it got close as we approached the line because George had turbo lag out of T15 due to the yellow flags. We really maximised the result today and we will, of course, keep trying for a win.

“All in all, it was a fantastic result for the team to have two cars on the podium; that is exactly what you want to see. I had a lot of fun today.”