Mekis: Max Verstappen put on a masterclass.

      Max Verstappen's second consecutive victory can, among other things, be regarded as a sign of an improvement in the atmosphere at Red Bull Racing after Laurent Mekies was appointed team principal a little over two months ago.

      However, judging by his comments made after the finish of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, despite the success in Monza there was no certainty that the RB21 would be just as quick on the Baku circuit.

      "What can you say about Max? In qualifying yesterday we saw a real masterclass from him, and he built up a big advantage in very difficult conditions when wind speeds reached 60 km/h," Mekies said on Sky Sports. "It was hard to predict what the pace in today's race would be because nobody ran long stints on Friday. But Max simply increased the gap lap after lap.

      "After the Italian Grand Prix we recognised that Monza is a very specific circuit, so it was unclear whether we could continue to progress in Baku. And today's result reflected the huge efforts of everyone working at the Milton Keynes base, trying to make our car faster.

      "We know that the Baku City Circuit also has its own characteristics, since all the corners here are slow, but on two tracks in a row our pace has allowed us to fight for victory.

      "A few rounds ago we said we intended to focus on each race individually and would do everything to finish the season as strongly as possible after a start that wasn't how we wanted. But everyone worked hard to get back to our previous level of competitiveness step by step — with the same mindset we'll prepare for the remaining races.

      "After two such successful Grands Prix it became clear that we are quite capable of fighting for second or third place in the Constructors' Championship, but more importantly: we're trying to gather as much information as possible, because it may be useful to us next year, even if the technical regulations change radically in 2026.

      "No one in Milton Keynes was going to give up and write off this season, because it was important to understand why we couldn't reach the level of results we expected. Gradually we worked everything out and realised that it wasn't down to one big problem, and thanks to combined efforts we managed to make gains across a number of areas that we identified during the work Max and Yuki Tsunoda did with their engineers.

      "It should be noted that Yuki also had a great race today: on average his pace was only three tenths slower than Max's. Overall, he did an excellent job too.

      "In Singapore we'll have to compete at another very specific circuit, and most of the remaining races will take place at tracks where medium-speed corners predominate — on such circuits McLaren usually enjoys a huge advantage..."