Verstappen: You win or lose as a Team and we won't give up

While Norris came closer to Verstappen in the drivers' championship, closing the gap to 59 points, McLaren are now on top of the constructors' standings, 20 points ahead of Red Bull Racing.

That was the result of Sergio Perez's crash with Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap of the F1 race in Baku on Sunday, which meant Verstappen only scored 10 points, while Oscar Piastri took the win, scoring 25 points, while Norris scored 12 points with an additional point for the fastest lap.

Verstappen attempted to clock the fastest lap with a late pit stop for Soft tyres, but his teammate's crash meant he could not go for it, a disappointing end to a disappointing race where he and his RB20 were a shadow of the dominant combo they used to be just months ago.

Speaking in Red Bull's race report, Verstappen said: "Today ended up being a worse case scenario, but the most important thing is that Checo is okay.

"In the race, we were stuck behind Lando and Alex and had some issues with the balance, and the car was jumping around a lot and losing contact with the tarmac. We ultimately still had some issues with changes that we made before qualifying, and we just paid the price today.

"Most of the time we make a change going into qualifying and it pays off, but sometimes it doesn't, and it is just a risk you have to make," he explained. "There is a fix, but we found out too late to make any changes. The initial changes we made were positive; we were going well, and we just made some changes in qualifying that tipped us over the edge.

"For the Championship, we are going to work together as a Team and the fight is not over. You win or lose as a Team and we won't give up. It is as simple as that," the Dutchman adamantly concluded.

Perez, whose incident with Sainz was considered a racing incident by the stewards, reflected: "Today was very unfortunate, the last person I wanted to have a contact with is Carlos, and to both end our weekends like that is a disaster for both of us.

"I feel that we exited turn two with lots of room between the cars, and as Charles was moving to the inside, Carlos looked to pick up the tow from him. As he picked up speed, he moved very quickly, touched my front tyre, and it was game over for me.

"It is a shame for the Team and the Championship, after the race we had today and the work we have done all weekend it's hard for everyone to take," the Mexican lamented. "I feel super sad for the Team, but the positive thing is the pace is back; the changes to the car seem to have put us back in contention. We were fighting for the win and looking like we were going to have a strong result – that's what we need to take out of today.

"We need to keep it up with the progress we have made, and hopefully in the coming races we can be very strong," he concluded.

As for Red Bull boss Christian Horner, he summed up his team's race and the loss of P1 in the constructors' championship to McLaren.

He said: "A disappointing end to the race and a very unlucky one for Checo; he was in a position to win that race today, and it is unfortunate that we weren't able to achieve that.

"It looked like Carlos drifted to the left hand side of the track, and there was contact, which caused a huge amount of damage. Importantly, both drivers are ok, but it has cost us crucial points for Checo and the Constructors' Championship, so we are very disappointed.

"With Max, he wasn't as happy with the set up of the car, so we'll have to look into what the difference was there. After the pit stop, he ran into Lando and Alex, which was unlucky as it affected his race and his tyres started getting out of the window.

"For the Constructors, it was obviously a big swing in the last three laps, and we have lost out on some significant points in the Championship, however, we will brush ourselves down and fight back hard," the Briton concluded.