Zoom Zoom Baku 2025! Race 17 finds a feline paddock queen, A chaotic Quali, Oscar's very bad day, and a Smooth Operator finds the podium!

Colby Michaels
Sep 23
7 min read

Welcome back Zoomies! A week off for the teams, and now they return to one of my favorite racing tracks in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the racetrack is just a few miles off the Caspian Sea. This very true street track races through ancient parts of old Baku, so castles! (No dragons though!). Its the track that I unintentionally have deemed one of if not one of the favorite tracks on the circuit for me! And F1 has extended this track race till 2030!!! Apparently there is a street/track cat that is the boss of this paddock. She has been very popular amongst almost all the teams paddock crew, but there have been rumors that if this kitty don't like you, or you are cross with it, kitty has claws that will turn you into sliced deli meat! Will post pix at the end of the recap of this fascinating feline! Late ADD UPDATE: We finally know what Red Bull paid their now former principal, Christian Horner to leave the team: 100 million dollars! Rob, you can stop worrying about Ginger Spice's future! :) Oh, my Driver of the Week is Williams' Alex Albon.

Just a reminder pic of Franco Colapinto racing for Alpine...still.

Let's get into it, shall we? Practices first, each 60 minutes. P1: Weather is partly cloudy, 75 degrees and 70% humidity. The turns/corners here are really tight, as Alex Albon's left mirror found out (RIP Williams left mirror.). Oscar Piastri's car is called into the garage after just 10 minutes on the track, and it looks like that McLaren car is done for this session! A red flag went up for some debris on the track, and the session is stalled for at least ten minutes?? Now it's a yellow flag?? Good news from this delay is that McLaren was able to fix Oscar's car. Mystery solved, as the curb on Turn 17 is being stubborn about sealing it down! Green flag with 20 minutes left in this practice. No further incidents, so onto an important P2, with all the lost practice time from this session! P2: 30 minutes into practice, Lando Norris' rear tyre bangs the wall on Turn 4, snapping his suspension, and we see his car crawling back to the pit lane, and Lando's P2 is done for the day. No further incidents.

P3: Weather for Saturday's racing is partly cloudy, 80 degrees, and while winds are about 6 MPH, gusts have reached up to 25MPH!! Some of the drivers are making note of the wind on the radio, so something to keep in mind for Qualis later in the day! No incidents, other than some run-offs.

Qualifying! Partly cloudy, and gusty. TEASER: This Quali was cray-cray! Q1: 18 minutes. A few minutes in, Red Flag is out as Alex Albon's front left tyre clips the wall on Turn 5, and his Williams car is done for qualifying!! Haas' Esteban Ocon's rear wing caught a tree branch as he was coming in during the red flag, no damage, but odd! Red Flag at 6:36 to go, as Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg destroys his front wing smashing into the wall on Turn 3. Red Flag at the very end as both Alpine drivers, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto crash into the wall on different parts of the track! So your bottom five/back of grid are: Albon/Williams, Gasly and Colapinto/Alpine, Hulkenberg/Sauber and Ocon/Haas.

Q2: 15 minutes. Just a few minutes in, and we get another Red Flag as Ollie Bearman's right rear tyre catches the wall, and his quali day is over, as the track marshals remove his Haas car. No further incidents, so the next bottom 5 are: Bearman/Haas, both Aston-Martin cars, Alonso and Stroll, Bortoleto/Sauber, and in a surprise, Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari will start 12th on the grid!! Q3: 12 minutes: A little drizzle starts to fall. Red Flag at the seven minute mark finds Ferrari's Charles LeClerc, who has won pole for 4 seasons in a row at this track, crashes into the wall at Turn 15 (He's ok); this is a STUNNER of a turn of events! The red flag also killed Oscar Piastri's speedy lap, as Oscar didn't cross the line before the red flag came out! The drizzle has upgraded to light rain, so the white racing lines are slippery! Another STUNNER of a Red Flag as McLaren's Oscar Piastri hits the wall on Turn 3 (he's ok!)!! There is only 3:41 left in this session, and only three drivers have a recorded lap time!! Green Flag for one lap to get in to improve grid placement and pole position. Lando scraps the wall on a late turn, costing him pole position, which leaves the door open for Red Bull's Max Verstappen to take pole for Sunday's GP.

Sharing the front row with Max will be Carlos Sianz of Williams (!!) 3rd place is Liam Lawson of Sugar Free Fred Bull (!!!!), 4th place is Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, followed by his teammate, George Russell in 5th, Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull, 6th, Lando of McLaren, 7th (sad face), Isack Hadjar of Sugar Free Red Bull, 8th, Oscar of McLaren 9th, and Charles of Ferrari round out the top ten! Crikey! Expect the Unexpected, indeed!

Oh, an F1 Qualifying record was set with SIX red flags!!!

Alex definitely needs a zen chill after his Baku weekend!

Baku Grand Prix: 52 laps, 20 turns, over three miles per lap. Overcast sky, temps in the 70s, and very windy! Haas' Esteban Ocon got slapped with a DQ in Qualifying apparently due that his car broke some regulation rule, and will start last. Keep in mind that McLaren only needs their drivers, Oscar and Lando to score 9 points or more to clinch the Constructor's Cup. It's LIGHTS OUT and just about everyone makes it thru the short first turn, with Lando losing one position, and Max in the lead with Carlos and Liam behind and,...oh wait? Where's Oscah? Turns out he had a start and stop, and because of that, he ended up falling from 9th all the way back to 20th! Yikes! Fernando did the same thing, reacting to Oscar. Surely Oscah will rebound and start gaining positions in no time....wait? what? Oscah has crashed into the padded wall due to a lock-up between turn 5 and 6 and is out of the race (DNF)???!!! Stunned is Team Papaya, which means it is up to Lando to place 5th (10 points) or better for McLaren to lock up the Constructor's teams race! Safety Car deployed to remove Oscar's car, as the race continues on. Esteban pitted to change his tyres as Nico tapped his right rear tyre. Safety car departs, and Max keeps the lead, with Carlos and Liam behind him, Kimi and then Yuki overtakes Georgie, Isack next and Charles overtakes Lando who is in 9th, with Lewis completing the Ferrari Lando sammie in 10th!

Lap 16: It's been a bit of a stalemate with regards to driver/track position, with Yuki in 6th, being the cork holding back Charles, Lando and Lewis. Franco doing the same in position 13 corking up a train of drivers in back of him. Fernando DID get a 5 second PENALTY for that jump start, btw! On Lap 18, Alex clips Franco's Alpine left wheel, both drivers are able to race on....I sense a penalty coming for Alex! Meanwhile, Mercedes pits Kimi to let George go after Liam for 3rd position; Kimi comes out in 12th. Oh, and Alex is slapped with a 10 second PENALTY for that Franco bump!

Lap 22, Liam pits, comes out in 10th, and Georgie now in 3rd. Lap 28 sees Carlos pit, and comes out in 6th. Max in the lead, Georgie in 2nd, and Yuki now in third, with Lando in 4th and Lewis 5th- all these drivers have not pitted to change tyres yet. Lap 37 sees Lewis pit and comes out in 9th, Lando pits on lap 38, and OH NO! NOT AGAIN! the McLaren pit crew messes up (4.1!!) the change of tyres as Lando comes out 8th position, which strategy-wise, loses two positions!! Yuki pits (2.2) and comes out in 6th. Georgie pits (2.3) and Georgie comes out in 2nd. Lap 41, Max, with a 32 second lead (basically he could catch a theater show!). Lando overtakes Charles for 7th.

No changes among the top 10, so after 51 laps, Max takes the checkered flag to win the Baku Grand Prix , with Georgie in 2nd, and Carlos Sainz takes the 3rd spot on the podium, his first podium with his new Williams team!! Kimi in 4th, Liam in 5th, Yuki in 6th, Lando in 7th, Lewis in 8th, Charles in 9th, and rounding out the top ten and the last point, Isack!

Notes: The fans have, rightfully so, chose Carlos as Driver of the Day! Two streaks ended for Oscar with this race: 44 races that he started and finished ends, and 34 race streak ends of Oscar being in the points.

While Liam didn't finish on the podium, it was his best F1 finish, and he drove brilliantly by holding off some much more experienced drivers! Yuki needed this! He was last in drivers points! Kimi gets a rookie confidence boost! Good showing for the Mercedes drivers!

McLaren pit crew better get their act together!!!!

Why is Oscar and Lando hearing the Jaws theme? Max is creeping back into the Driver's Championship!

A week off, and then to the hell (weather-wise-the humidity!) that is the Singapore GP! As a reward for making this far, as promised, some pix of the star of the weekend, The Baku Paddock Cat! Any name suggestions? I've heard Oscat, and Purrando so far!