sport news F1: Seven things we learned from the Azerbaijan GP including Verstappen's ... trends now

Agony and ecstasy is the common phrase that can best describe the main talking points behind an eventful Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Much of the latter admittedly was for Red Bull, who took a commanding hold of both the drivers' and constructors' championships with a one-two finish led by Max Verstappen.

But there was devastation for their title rivals Ferrari after a double retirement, and there was literal agony for Lewis Hamilton who struggled to get out of his Mercedes at the end of the race due to the porpoising of his car shaking his back throughout the bumpy streets of Baku.

There was lots to get stuck into regarding the post-race fall-out as Sportsmail looks at the seven things we learned from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

Verstappen maxes out again from Leclerc poles

It is starting to become a regular theme. Charles Leclerc wins Saturday by sticking his Ferrari on pole position, but once the points and prizes are handed out 24 hours later it is all smiles for Max Verstappen.

Bad luck for Leclerc, and not for the first time this year, saw the Monegasque star retire from Baku with an engine failure and it enabled the world champion to effectively stroll to another victory at his expense.

Leclerc has now been on pole for the last four races and won none of them, the longest such streak in 20 years since Juan Pablo Montoya went five races without success for Williams.

But even more salt was rubbed into this wound. Leclerc has now converted just four victories from his 15 pole positions in F1... but Verstappen is the biggest winner from the Ferrari star starting first in a race having managed to steal victory on five occasions from his title rival.

As well as Azerbaijan, Spain and Miami this term, the Dutchman also triumphed at last year's Monaco Grand Prix (when Leclerc failed to start from pole due to mechanical error) and also in Austria in 2019.

If Leclerc has any chance to wrestle the title away from Verstappen, it's a statistic he will have to reverse sharply. 

Hamilton porpoising pain may have no easy solution

One sight that appeared to dominate all others on Sunday was the sight of Lewis Hamilton very gingerly climbing out of his Mercedes after another race of violently bouncing up and down on his way to an otherwise credible fourth place.

Hamilton had complained over a bad back during the race, as a result of the severe porpoising issue - a phenomenon that sees the car shake vertically at high speed and has been a notable feature on the new era of F1 cars introduced for this year.

Mercedes believe they - with the support of many drivers - need a solution from the FIA to combat the issue in regards to protecting their long term health and safety.

However, not all are in agreement. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff reportedly told German media over the weekend that only Fernando Alonso was against finding an issue which could come in the form of teams mandatory raising the ride height of the car so it does not run as close to the ground.

However, this comes at the cost of performance and Mercedes would be the likely benefactors of such an intervention. McLaren star Lando Norris has weighed in suggesting his team have already given up performance to run a higher ride height, and it is up to Mercedes to find a solution.

Norris told F1's in-house post race show: 'I'm not complaining. We had some porpoising, some bouncing. But it is what you have to deal with. It is the trade off trying to gain performance and we can quite easily go lower and gain performance but have more porpoising.

'But we think where we are is just the correct amount. So I'm sure the Mercedes can have a much different floor and raise the ride height and it will be much nicer for them but they obviously don't want to lose performance so I don't think it is anything to complain about, it's just people need to find ways to fix it themselves.'

Over to you Mercedes... 

Ferrari's title chances are blowing up

The good news for Ferrari this season is that on pure pace they look a real match to take a decent title fight to Red Bull.

The bad news is that one of F1's oldest cliches is very much working against them - 'to finish first, first you must finish.'

For the second time in three races Charles Leclerc saw his Ferrari come to a halt on track while leading following a power unit issue in Baku. That's a potential 50 points binned - with Verstappen going on to win in Spain as well as on Sunday adding to the collateral damage.

To add to the frustration, Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz also had to retire earlier in the race from fourth following a hydraulics issue. 

Following the third race of the season in Australia, Leclerc led the championship from George Russell by 34 points, now he trails Verstappen by the same amount after dropping third behind Sergio Perez.

More concerning for Ferrari is that the problems they are suffering do not appear to be

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