The reigning world champion overtook Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez - who was instructed not to fight Verstappen - for second place, before inheriting the lea𒅌d when L🎃eclerc’s engine conked out 20 laps in. 

Verstappen then cruised to 𒆙168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历🧸史:a comfortable fifth victory of the season, and the 25th of his career, which has seen him move into 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:a 21-point lead aꦛt the top of🅘 the championship over Perez. 

Leclerc’s second power-unit related retirement in three races means the Ferrari driver has now fallenꦕ 34 points behind Verstappen after eight race🐽s. 

George Russell secured his third podium of the season in third place, ahead of teammate Lewis Hami🧔lton, who battled back pain in his bouncing Mercedes to fight his way into fourth after losing ground during an early pit stop. 

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly claimed a strong fifth 📖place, ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso’s Alpine. 

Daniel Ricciardo beat McLaren teammate Lando Norris to eighth, while Alpine’s🥃 Esteban Ocon completed the points-paying positions in 10th. 

More reliability woe for Ferrari at Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Ferrari endured a nightmare race i🧜n Baku with their first double DNF of the season.&nbs🔜p;

Carlos Sainz dropped out of fourth place early on when his Ferrari s🦂witched off 🍨with an expected hydraulic issue, before Leclerc joined him on the sidelines after suffering a hammer blow to his title hopes. 

Leclerc’s hopes of taking third win of the season ended in dramatic fashion on the main straight when smoke was seen pouring out of theꩲ back of his Ferrari, forcing him into the pits and ret🐭irement. 

There was more reliability for Ferrari’s customer teams as Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and Ha💛as’ Kevin Magnussen also stopped with technical issues.

With four of the six Ferrari-powered cars failing to see the chequered flag, there will be real concern at Maranello over the sꦫtate of the Italian team’s reliabi🐻lity.

Red Bull use team orders again 

Verstappen was handed a helping hand by Red Bull en route to his win when Perez was told not to offer any res🍬istance to his teammate. 

The Dut༺chman caught and easily passed Perez into Turn 1 to snatch second place on Lap 15 as Perez obeyed the order. 

After the race, Perez said the team order was corre🅰ct given Verstappen’s pace advantage over him at that stage of the race, but it was a clear sign of who Red Bull is bac꧟king in the title race. 

Versta🐷ppen now finds himself 21 points clear of Perez, who has leapfrogged Leclerc into second place in the standings with 14 races to go.