How the faster Hadjar helped Verstappen to second place in Baku

Special ContributorMichael Lamonato

It was only as he moved into third place, past team mate Isack Hadjar, that Max Verstappen realised he had a problem.

His rise from eighth on the grid had been typically excellent and demonstrated the pace he felt he should have had in Qualifying, before engine problems and yellow flags left him in the lower reaches of Q3.

Quicker than Hadjar on Lap 7, the team enforced orders to have them swap positions, and having easily passed Lando Norris a few laps earlier, getting through Oscar Piastri to have a shot at race leader George Russell looked like a formality.