How Baku defeat unleashed Verstappen's record season

Despite two wins from the first three races of the season, MaxVerstappen had not truly found top gear heading into the AzerbaijanGrand Prix. He was still struggling to find a way to drive theRB19, with a reliability failure in Saudi Arabian qualifying thatleft him 15th on the grid meaning he could finish 'only' second toSergio Perez. Baku, the scene for round four - and the first Sprintof the year was not set to be an easy affair either. The Azericapital is a race Perez had traditionally gone well at, with strongshowings in 2016 and 2018 before winning in 2021 in the late-racechaos and adding another podium in 2022. By contrast, Verstappenhad just one podium to his name, although that was the win in 2022when Charles Leclerc's engine went bang while leading. That beingsaid, Baku had also been a favourite of Leclerc, with pole in 2021and 2022 and a Ferrari package well suited to slow corners andaccelerating from traction zones onto long straights. The Ferraribagged Sprint pole, with Verstappen colliding with George Russellat the start, leading to sizeable damage in the sidepod. That onlyadded to Verstappen's doom and gloom on a weekend the new SprintShootout format was tried - with the World Champion in a funk abouthis dislike of the format. Come race day, Verstappen was leadingfrom Perez and Leclerc when Nyck de Vries crashed, and in apre-emptive strike while the yellows were out, Red Bull pittedVerstappen on Lap 10 as Perez went on his way and assumed the lead.Fortunately for the Mexican, the Safety Car was deployed as herounded Turn 2, meaning he would not be hampered by having to fallin line at the head of the snake - whereas the Dutchman was. On therestart, Perez simply cleared off and held Verstappen at armslength for 37 laps from the Lap 14 restart to Lap 51. Towards theend of the race, Verstappen, knowing victory was gone, decided toexperiment in the RB19 to try and troubleshoot some of the problemshe had in the car. While he was coy about what exactly he hadlearnt, Verstappen did nod towards it being related to the tyresand how he used them. "I learned a lot from the race in Baku overhow to do some things with the car and how to set it up," heexplained to media including RacingNews365. "Of course, I didn'twin that race in Baku, but actually, I really tried a lot of stuffand different tools in the car. "That's why throughout the race itwas a little bit inconsistent, but at one point, I got into a goodrhythm with what I found. "But then I damaged my tyres a bit toomuch, but it was like: 'Okay, that is quite interesting for thenext races.' "Basically I then implemented that and it has helpedme on every track [since]." After the race in Azerbaijan, therewere 18 Grands Prix and five Sprints left in the season. Verstappenwould win 17 and four, respectively and not be defeated in any racebetween Baku on April 30th and Singapore on September 17th.