THE BIG PICTURE: How many different ways can we say this season keeps getting better and better? Well, it is.

EVENT: The crowd is getting bigger. Kind of, sort of.

TRACK: We're still flabbergasted that the wall of a 12th century castle is also the wall of a modern day Formula 1 track.

QUALIFYING: Leclerc transfers his practice speed into qualifying for pole, Piastri is the lone McLaren at the front because Norris shockingly gets caught out with yellow flags in Q1, Perez outqualifies Verstappen, Colapinto is brilliant, Bearman is solid as well, and Williams embarrasses themselves with an insane unsafe pit exit of Albon.

RACE: Now that was a Formula 1 race. One of the best ever.

START: Leclerc is off strong, Piastri is a little slow but still hangs onto second, Perez is his old Baku self getting past Sainz, and Tsunoda effectively ends his race in a collision with Stroll.

PIASTRI: Daniel Ricciardo was once called the king of the late brakers. That title is now passed on to Oscar as evident of the last two races. This time for the win.

NORRIS: Not only did Lando make a great comeback from his qualifying ill luck, not only did he get in the points, but he still managed to score more than Verstappen.

MCLAREN: And now the field is chasing them. For the first time since 2014.

LECLERC: Charles thought no problem, I'll simply repass Piastri when the opportunity arises. It did not, because Piastri was cool, calm, and collective under intense pressure.

SAINZ: Probably should not have tried to pass Leclerc at that moment which put him under attack from Perez, which ultimately led to their collision.

FERRARI: They still have to be happy overall with their performance.

VERSTAPPEN: An unhappy camper.

PEREZ: Sergio sure does like Baku. And the crash doesn't take away from his superb performance, other than when he finally was going to contribute a huge chunk of points, they all went away in splintering carbon fiber.

RUSSELL: George may not have been happy with his race, but a podium is a podium, no matter how you get it.

ALONSO: A sixth place finish pales in comparison to what Fernando must be looking forward to in 2026 with Adrian Newey.

NEWEY: Have you ever seen such a fanfare announcement in F1 for something other than a car or driver? We haven't either. But that is the impact Adrian can make on a team. Which just adds to the pressure he will be under, when most people decide to retire.

COLAPINTO: Points in his second F1 race. The first Argentinian to score since Carlos Reutemann 42 years ago.

BEARMAN: Thanks to the bizarre ending, Oliver became the first driver to perform a bizarre feat -- points in his first two F1 races with two different teams.

ALPINE: One of your cars got beaten by a Sauber. A Sauber!

SAUBER: They may still have zero points, but they sure solved their pit stop woes, recording the fastest one at Baku.

F2: A scary, scary crash at the feature race start, luckily left everyone unhurt. It was won by Dutchman Richard Verschoor, his first "official" win, as he was disqualified from his prior victory. In the sprint race, Joshua Dürksen became the first Paraguayan F2 winner.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Fun.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 169 -- The number of points Piastri has scored in the last 10 races, more than any other driver.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The odd feat which Bearman was able to achieve got us thinking how often does any driver good enough to score points get in that situation to even have a shot at it? It turns out (at least) two very famous drivers were. Gilles Villeneuve made his F1 debut at the 1977 British GP for McLaren, finishing 11th. McLaren decided not to keep him (one of the all time worst driver decisions in F1 history), so his next race was later that year in his home country with Ferrari. He finished 12th at Mosport. Michael Schumacher made his debut at Spa in 1991 with Jordan. Though his clutch failed on the first lap, his qualifying performance was so spectacular, Bennetton "stole" him, putting him in the next race at Monza where he finished fifth.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From the @F1 official site:

A race so entertaining it deserves an Oscar

#F1 #AzerbaijanGP

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Oscar Piastri putting it quite accurately, "It was a high-risk, high-commitment move but that's what I needed to do to try and win the race."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Lando Norris rubbing salt in Red Bull's wounds, "As far as the Constructors' Championship is concerned, I'm more worried about Ferrari than Red Bull."

SCHEDULE: Even when Red Bull was beyond dominating, Singapore was always their achilles' heel. This is a great opportunity for McLaren, and Norris, to gain a massive amount of points from Red Bull, and Verstappen. Then, let the rest of the season play out.

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