Verstappen prevails after Leclerc’s engine failure

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Max Verstappen once again pounced when rival Charles Leclerc faltered in their race for the Formula One title.

Verstappen extended his F1 championship lead by winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday — his fifth victory of the season — following yet another Leclerc early retirement.

Leclerc started from pole, immediately lost the lead in the first corner to Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s Red

Bull teammate, then used smart strategy to cycle his Ferrari back to the front. Leclerc regained the lead when he pitted under “virtual safety car” speed restrictions while the two Red Bull cars stayed out.

Leclerc seemed poised to challenge for the win, but the Monaco driver’s car started spewing smoke on lap 20 of 51 and he had to pull into the pits.

His engine had failed — Leclerc’s second retirement in three races.

“It hurts. We really need to look into that for it to not happen again. I don’t really find the right words to describe, obviously it is very disappointing,“Leclerc said.

Verstappen had passed Perez shortly before Leclerc’s failure and the reigning F1 champion cruised to his fifth win in seven races. Red Bull has won five consecutive races, and although Leclerc has two wins this year, his last victory was at Australia in early April and his last podium was at Miami in early May.

“That’s racing. It happened to me, it happened to many people in the past. Unfortunately, it’s happening to Charles,” Verstappen said when asked if he had any sympathy for his rival’s difficulties.

“If I would be in the same situation, I would also be disappointed. I think that’s very normal. But it’s about how you come out of it, you always look at how to improve things. That’s what we did as well in the beginning of the season. And you learn from it. You don’t like it, you’re angry, but we turn it around.”