Max Verstappen took victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as McLaren's chaotic weekend on the streets of Baku continued with Oscar Piastri crashing out on the opening lap and Lando Norris securing seventh place.
Following a disastrous qualifying session for McLaren on Saturday, Verstappen started on pole position while title rivals Norris and Piastri started seventh and ninth.
Piastri's race faltered from the start as he moved before the lights went out, triggered his car's anti-stall setting and dropped to the back of the pack by Turn 1.
As the championship leader tried to recover positions on the opening lap, he went to the outside of a group of cars at Turn 5, locked his front brakes and crashed into the barriers on the exit of the corner.
"I think ultimately I misjudged the grip level," he said. "Probably a lot of that's from dirty air [from the cars in front], but I know better than that -- to expect the lack of grip.
"I'm certainly not blaming it on anything else. It was two simple errors on my behalf that I caused today."
The incident marked the end of Piastri's mistake-strewn weekend after he also crashed in qualifying.
It presented a golden opportunity for teammate Norris to carve points out of his championship lead, but just as he struggled to take advantage of Piastri's error in qualifying, Norris also failed to capitalize in the race, finishing seventh at the finish.
The result does mean Norris has cut the gap in the standings to 25 points (the same amount as a victory) with seven races remaining.
Norris might have secured fifth place and a further four points had it not been for a slow pit stop, which scuppered his chances of undercutting Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull in sixth and overcutting Liam Lawson's Racing Bull in fifth.
Piastri was issued a five-second penalty for his jump start, but, according to the FIA's stewarding guidelines, it will not be converted into a grid penalty at the next race.
"Just a misjudgement on the lights, I guess trying to anticipate it too much," Piastri said of the jump start. "Yeah, simple error and then went into anti-stall and went downhill from there, so, just a simple error.
McLaren's smallest points haul of the year means the team also missed out on an opportunity to seal its defense of the constructors' championship, which will now likely be won at the next round in Singapore.
Verstappen's victory -- his fourth of the season and second in a row, having won two weeks ago at Monza -- means he is now 69 points adrift of Piastri in the drivers' championship.
"This weekend has been incredible for us," Verstappen said after the race. "Monza was already great, but for us to win here is fantastic.
"The car was working really well on both compounds. We had clean air all the time, so you could look after your tyres, and it was pretty straightforward ... it's never easy around here, very windy today, so the car was moving around a lot. I'm incredibly happy with this performance," he added.
The Red Bull driver was in a class of his own at the front of the field after maintaining the lead at the start ahead of Carlos Sainz, who started second on the grid.
Sainz held on for third place at the finish -- Williams' first podium since its default second place at the washed-out 2021 Belgian Grand Prix -- behind George Russell, who used an alternative strategy to move from fifth on the grid to second at the finish for Mercedes.
"I cannot describe how happy I am and how good this feels. It tastes even better than my first-ever podium," Sainz said. "We have been fighting hard all year and we proved when we had the speed, we had it all year and everything comes together and we can do some amazing things together.
"We nailed the race, not one mistake, and we managed to beat a lot of cars [Saturday] that we wouldn't have expected to beat."
Meanwhile Russell, who had been unwell coming into the weekend, said: "Firstly, congrats to Carlos and Williams. An amazing result for them.
"For us, really happy to be back on the podium. It has been a bit of a rough weekend for me personally, but the car was great. Kimi [Antonelli] in P4 as well, so happy with that.
"I was pretty glad when I saw the chequered flag, to be honest. Fortunately I felt much better today than I felt on Friday and Saturday. Looking forward to a bit of rest now but just happy with the result."
The Russell-Antonelli combo finish of 2-4 ensured Mercedes moved into second place in the constructors' championship, four points ahead of Ferrari.
Lawson's fifth-place finish was the best of his career, while Tsunoda, who replaced Lawson at Red Bull after two rounds earlier this season, secured his best result of the season with the senior Red Bull team in sixth.
Lewis Hamilton finished in eighth place on the tail of the battle for fifth among Lawson, Tsunoda and Norris. The seven-time champion was given eighth by his teammate Charles Leclerc, who dropped out of contention for a top-six position after pitting significantly earlier than his rivals.
Hamilton attempted to give the position back to Leclerc at the finish when he failed to make progress in passing the cars ahead, but still crossed the line ahead of his teammate.
Isack Hadjar secured the last point on offer for Racing Bulls.