Phenomenal end of the race! Who won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?

Again and again we witnessed a phenomenal race in Baku. Hamilton’s big mistake, Bottas’ misery, two accidents and an unconventional podium. How did the Azerbaijan Grand Prix turn out?

As usual, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix gave us a great spectacle, especially the end of the race was not only for Red Bull or Mercedes fans.

Not much changed after the start of the race, at least in terms of the top ten standings. Sergio Pérez, in any case, was in fourth place immediately after the start, ahead of Pierre Gasly.

However, Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin had a great start to the opening circuit, moving up from 19th to 13th and improving significantly after the start. On the other hand, George Russell in the Williams dropped from fifteenth place to the very tail of the starting field.

On lap four of this race, Alpine F1 driver Esteban Ocon retired due to a loss of performance. By lap seven, championship leader Max Verstappen had moved ahead of Charles Leclerc into second place to chase down Lewis Hamilton.

The Ferrari-owned Monegasque was subsequently passed by Pérez. Hamilton had two hungry bulls behind him at that point, and he simply couldn’t get past them. He also complained about balance problems with his car.

Mercedes’ woes continued throughout the race weekend. Hamilton’s teammate was as high as tenth. During laps eight to fourteen, the drivers gradually went to their mechanics.

The Mercedes didn’t even manage a pit stop. This took an unusually long time due to a problem with the left rear wheel tightening and the British driver lost his first place in the race. A short while later, Red Bull’s co-driver Pérez stopped at his mechanics.

And thanks to Hamilton’s long stop, the Mexican driver was able to get ahead of the seven-time world champion. In radio communication afterwards, the 36-year-old noted that the Red Bull had much better traction coming out of the corners and was extremely difficult to hold on to.

In particular, in the second sector of the track, Hamilton was nearly half a second behind Pérez!

On lap 31 we saw the first big accident involving the Canadian Stroll. His car suffered a puncture on the right rear tyre and ended up in the wall in the corner before the finish straight. He damaged the front part of his monoposto in particular.

Yellow flags were waved and the Safety Car came out onto the track and went back to pit lane on lap 35. The order at that point was as follows: Verstappen, Pérez, Hamilton, Gasly, Vettel, Leclerc, Tsunoda, Norris, Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten.

12 laps later, on lap 47, it was the race leader Max Verstappen who crashed dangerously on the home straight. The reason was again a puncture, this time on the left rear tyre.

After this collision, the race was stopped for a few minutes and red flags were waved on the circuit. The race directorate, headed by Michael Masi, then decided to start from a fixed position.

However, it went absolutely wrong for Hamilton, who first overtook Pérez but then failed to brake into the first corner and ended up in the escape zone. This manoeuvre dropped the British driver to last place in the race!

However, the restart worked out well for Sebastian Vettel, who took second place! At the end of the race, we saw a tight battle for third place between Leclerc and Gasly, with the Alpha Tauri driver emerging victorious.

Fifth place Lando Norris also tried to make his voice heard, but to no avail. After a crazy ending, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was dominated by Pérez, who jumped to third place in the drivers’ standings. The podium was also unusual – Vettel finished second, Gasly third.

Fourth place was defended by Leclerc in his Ferrari ahead of fifth-placed Norris in his McLaren. Fernando Alonso did very well for Alpine, not letting Yuki Tsunoda get ahead of him. Carlos Sainz finished eighth in the Grand Prix ahead of Australia’s Ricciardo, with Kimi Räikkönen taking the final points position.

Source: F1 Live