In a season where Max Verstappen and Red Bull already threaten to run away with it, at the Azerbaijan sprint race the Dutchman was handed a salutary reminder that he should not expect an easy ride. Mercedes’ George Russell was the driver to give no quarter, which infuriated Verstappen and caused as feisty an exchange off track as they had with one another on the streets of Baku. It ended with Verstappen warning he would be gunning for Russell in future.
The pair’s battle and its ill-tempered fallout was by far the highlight of another somewhat processional sprint, won by Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Pérez from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Verstappen taking third.
