Red Bull gets another double in Azerbaijan! Leclerc also on the podium, fourth race of the season affected by Safety Car exit

Formula 1 had its fourth race of the season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, on Sunday 30 April. The Red Bull team went for a clear double. Sergio Pérez won the race, with Max Verstappen finishing second. Charles Leclerc rounded out the podium. The race in Baku was affected by the Safety Car exit.

Despite accidents in Formula 2 or even in Formula 1 qualifying, the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was without incident.

Charles Leclerc retained first place after the start ahead of Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen, while Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton also fought for position. On the other hand, Lando Norris dropped out of the top ten shortly after all five lights went out.

So what did the grid look like before the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix? It should be noted that Friday’s qualifying had already taken care of its composition, due to the modified format of the sprint race weekend.

Leclerc didn’t last long in the lead, however. In fact, he was overtaken by Verstappen on the fourth lap, and two laps later by Mexico’s Pérez. On lap 11, yellow flags waved on the circuit, which the reigning champion was keen to take advantage of, stopping by his mechanics for a new set of hard tyres.

However, his plans were somewhat thwarted by the Safety Car, which came out onto the track as a result of an accident involving Nyck de Vries. The latter came to a halt at Turn 6, having made a driving error when he hit the barrier with his left wheel.

Pérez took the lead in the race. The safety car exit was therefore used by a number of drivers, almost all of them wearing a hard set of tyres marked with white paint. Before the restart, the order of the elite ten was as follows.

Pérez, Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Alonso, Russell, Stroll, Ocon, Hülkenberg, Hamilton. Hamilton suffered the most at the Safety Car stop, while Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg surged ahead thanks to the pit stop.

On lap 14, the green flag waved and the race could be restarted. Verstappen was ahead of Leclerc, Alonso ahead of Sainz, Lance Stroll ahead of George Russell. Hamilton managed to move up to eighth.

Pérez, Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso, Sainz, Stroll, Hamilton, Russell, Ocon, Hülkenberg – this is how the Azerbaijan Grand Prix top ten points standings looked after 16 laps.

The order did not change much during the rest of the race…

Four circuits later, Canadian Stroll made a driving mistake, which Hamilton took advantage of to get ahead of him. This order, including the aforementioned overtake, practically held until lap 47. It was then that Lando Norris moved up to tenth place after several laps of insistence.

It should be noted, because of the rule about the mandatory completion of at least one pit-stop in the race, Ocon and Hülkenberg still had to go to their mechanics. They chose the last lap of the Azerbaijan VC as their pit stop and understandably dropped down the order after that.

Before the last lap, Russell went to get a fresh set of the softest tyres marked in red. This was because Mercedes wanted to try and capture the fastest lap and gain an extra championship point, which they eventually did.

So how did the Azerbaijan Grand Prix end? The Red Bull Racing team went for another double of the season, with Pérez taking the win and Verstappen finishing second. Leclerc in a Ferrari rounded out the podium for both Austrian drivers.

Fourth place at the end of the fourth race of the season belongs to Alonso, fifth to Sainz, sixth to Hamilton, seventh to Stroll, eighth to Russell, ninth to Norris and the top ten was completed by Júki Cunoda in the AlphaTauri.

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