Here’s our snap report on the Azerbaijan GP.
Some dialogue between Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton is telling, with both aware the world is listening out. “This is a bit of a *** box to drive,” says Wolff, the Mercedes team principal. “And sorry for the back problems.”
“Well done guys,” says Hamilton. “And well done on the strategy. Thank you on continuing to push. Let’s make some changes.”
Final result
- 1 Max Verstappen 1 Oracle Red Bull
- 2 Sergio Perez 11 Oracle Red Bull
- 3 George Russell 63 Mercedes-AMG
- 4 Lewis Hamilton 44 Mercedes-AMG
- 5 Pierre Gasly 10 Scuderia
- 6 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin
- 7 Fernando Alonso 14 BWT Alpine
- 8 Daniel Ricciardo 3 McLaren
- 9 Lando Norris 4 McLaren
- 10 Esteban Ocon 31 BWT Alpine
- 11 Valtteri Bottas 77 Alfa Romeo
- 12 Alexander Albon 23 Williams
- 13 Yuki Tsunoda 22 Scuderia
- 14 Mick Schumacher 47 Haas
- 15 Nicholas Latifi 6 Williams
- Guan Yu Zhou 24 Alfa Romeo 14 Retire
- Lance Stroll 18 Aston Martin 19 Retire
- Charles Leclerc 16 Scuderia Ferrari 1 Retire
- Kevin Magnussen 20 Haas 16 Retire
- Carlos Sainz Jr. 55 Scuderia Ferrari 4 Retire
Lewis Hamilton gets out of the car, and he’s feeling his back, looks in real pain after a very good drive today.
“Was that a good race or was that a good race, an amazing result for the team,” Verstappen tells his team as Christian Horner congratulates Sergio Perez too. He also thanks Verstappen for “a very mature drive”.
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Max Verstappen wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix!
No fastest lap from the winner, but no disaster like last year. Perez follows him home with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton making it a Mercedes 3/4. It’s a big win for Red Bull on a day of disaster for Ferrari, counting the cost of those Sainz and Leclerc retirements. Gasly takes fifth, Vettel sixth, Alonso seventh, Ricciardo hold on to eighth, with Norris in ninth, and Ocon takes the final point in tenth.
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50/51 Worry from Verstappen in the cockpit. Something wrong with the brake pedals, he tells the Red Bull team. “It doesn’t feel right,” he says but will probably soldier on. Norris is told to retain position behind Ricciardo and isn’t happy.
49/51 Norris and Ricciardo are chasing each other now, a battle of eighth chasing down seventh, two McLaren teammates. Ricciardo can’t get past Alonso who can’t get past Vettel, who span off and recovered before.
48/51 “The seats gone cold,” says Hamilton. What’s that about? Who knows. Something to do with his back pain? Lance Stroll, who was 15th, is called in to retire. His team don’t like what they see in the readouts. That’s six retirees today.
47/51 Ricciardo and Alonso is where the action is, as Verstappen cruises to a win.
Edwin gets in touch: “I think this season needs to get it’s drama, from somewhere else, since leclerc and Ferrari are fumbling. May be checo should grow some balls and challenge max. Let’s have another Hamilton/rosberg scenario.”
46/51 Alonso, in seventh, is trying his best to hold off Ricciardo, who is urged by his team to get stuck into the Spaniard.
45/51 Latifi has a second 15-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. He’s in last place anyway.
44/51 Verstappen leads Perez by 17 seconds, as Hamilton chases Gasly with DRS and gets up to fourth and opens up a gap in the braking zone. Third and fourth for Mercedes now.
43/51 Hamilton is on the tail of Gasly now, quicker than expected, and Latifi is lapped by Hamilton, as the Mercedes is forced the long way round. Gasly is told to take the points by his team, and not risk anything.
42/51 Lando Norris chases down his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, in the race for eighth.
41/51 Verstappen is asked to slow down and then tells his Red Bull team that he doesn’t want to cool the tyres down. Nice luxury to have for him. They tell him not to use DRS for the rest of the race, as they try to avoid a mishap like last year.
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40/51 Tsunoda is told not to use DRS, as he drops to 13th after that Heath Robinson job. Seems like the FIA are not happy, and the Japanese driver is likely to be called back.
39/51 The prediction is that in five laps, Hamilton will be on Gasly’s tale. Tsunoda comes down the straight, and his team are bringing out tyres, and then they tape the wing back together with gaffer tape.
38/51 Perez eases off in his chase of Verstappen. Tsunoda is given a black and orange flag to come in, though the Japanese driver carries on regardless.
37/51 Perez sets a fastest lap, though he’s still some way behind Verstappen. Tsunoda’s car looks to be jiggered, the rear wing looking dangerous. That should be the end of his race soon enough. It’s in half.
36/51 Hamilton chases down Tsunoda, and the DRS gets the job done, if probably doesn’t help his bad back, as he bounces past. Gasly is next in sight.
35/51 Magnussen’s car is still by the track and so the virtual safety car is still in session. Tsunoda’s tyres making visible signs, and so Hamilton behind him and Gasly, the two pit refusals, should be able to make up ground
34/51 Magnussen’s woes open up a virtual safety car and both Red Bulls come in to change tyres. Russell goes in, and so does Hamilton, though Gasly does not. Hamilton drops to sixth. Red Bull’s pits were both done efficiently.
33/51 And that’s that for Magnussen, and a yellow flag. His Haas overheated in that overtaking of Haas.
32/51 A view from inside Kevin Magnussen’s car as he attempts to blam past Ocon shows how fast they are going through the streets of Baku. Awesome stuff. Magnussen takes tenth, the final point.
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31/51 Lando Norris overtakes Bottas to go 12th, it’s been quite a race down in the midfield if there’s a procession up front.
30/51 Verstappen’s gap on Perez is almost nine seconds. Too easy for him and Red Bull. His team tell him not to go too hard. “You know what it’s like to lose a race here.”
29/51 Lewis Hamilton squawking about his bad back in that Mercedes. Oh dear. The old porpoising is causing him and George Russell problems.
28/51 Ocon is one of the few not to have pitted. Charles Leclerc speaks: “It hurts, we really want to look into it to see it doesn’t happen again. It’s really disappointing. We didn’t change too much, if anything to make it better. I have no news, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Four poles in a row, and no wins. Last driver to do that was Juan Paplo Montoya in 2001.
27/51 Fernando Alonso, whose Alpine is screaming along, goes up to ninth, passing Ocon, who is dropping back in the field.
26/51 Ricciardo, on the harder tyres, is hoping to hold on to fifth but has Hamilton for company, and is passed by the Mercedes.
25/51 George Russell is setting faster times and looks on course for third in his Merc. He’s three places ahead of Hamilton as Vettel at last overtakes Ocon, this time it’s a smooth job.
24/51 Guanyu Zhou in the Alfa Romeo is told he has to retire. “You’re joking, guys,” says the Chinese driver. The battle is on for eighth as Vettel chases down Ocon, who has been a problem for a few drivers today.
23/51 With Ferrari unreliable, and Mercedes in such a mess, the title is Verstappen and Red Bull’s to lose. The defending world champion is setting fastest laps.
22/51 Verstappen has the race in his hands, and with Russell sat up in third, we turn to the minor places, with Gasly overtaking Ricciardo for fourth. Celebrations in the Alpha Tauri garage.
Leclerc's engine fails and he's out!
21/51 Oh no, oh Ferrari, Charles Leclerc’s engine has gone, too, and that’s game over, into the pits he goes and retires. There’s smoke coming from the gearbox, and that looks to be that for the race, and probably the championship.
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20/51 Thomas Stratford gets in touch: “Hey John, happy Sunday. Do you remember that old cartoon Wacky Races? Every episode would involve Dick Dastardy and Muttley seemingly getting themselves into a promising position to finally claim victory before somehow screwing it up at the end. I doubt Ferrari would welcome the comparison but given their ongoing mishaps this season...”
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19/51 Verstappen pits, far smoother than Perez, and Leclerc goes into the lead. Perez is now setting the fastest lap on those harder tyres, and that’s probably good news for Verstappen, and bad for Leclerc.
18/51 Fernando Alonso, who is now the longest serving driver ever in F1, is in fifth, with Lando Norris, rather younger on his tail. Here we go, Hamilton finally gets past Ocon, and can now chase Gasly.
17/51 The Red Bull team spring into action for Perez, though take their time at 5/7 seconds, and Perez is slow out of the pits. That puts Leclerc in second, and Russell is closing on Perez with real speed. “Hydraulics” is the given reason for Sainz’s exit.
16/51 Carlos Sainz goes back to the pits, looking morose after his car gave up on him when in fourth.
15/51 Verstappen takes the lead, nice and easy as he speeds past Perez, who doesn’t offer up any defence, having been told not to by the team radio. With Leclerc taking up the fastest lap, and having gained six seconds, the Ferrari is the threat to Verstappen now.
14/51 Hamilton has a go at overtaking Ocon, but the Mercedes doesn’t have enough speed.
13/51 The word from the Lando Norris-McLaren radio is that this is a one-stop race though the heat may cause problems. Oh dear, Question Time’s Sebastian Vettel screams after Esteban Ocon, and then spins the car, and then loses a place to Yuki Tsunoda.
12/51 Verstappen is going quicker than Perez, flying along. George Russell, having pitted, is in fourth, whereas the Red Bulls haven’t.
11/51 Verstappen not happy that Leclerc has taken the stop, though there’s a huge gap opened, around 13 seconds. The gamble is that the Ferrari’s tyres last till the end of the race. With Sainz out, it’s all on Leclerc.
10/51 The virtual safety car is on, and Leclerc comes in, to go on the hard tyres. He drops back to third, and could have been far quicker in the pit. The team was a bit slow. He had a problem with the front jack. Hamilton also comes in, and he drops to 11th.
9/51 Not much overtaking so far, like a mini-Monaco. Verstappen’s team tells him to “be a little bit patient”. Oh dear, Sainz has gone, and smashed off at turn four, and there’s a yellow flag. That looks to be it for him. “Something has failed,” he tells the radio. He’s not having much luck. Looks like his power cut out.
8/51 Leclerc and Verstappen continues to be the key battle, while Hamilton has dropped off Gasly. The word from Ferrari to Leclerc is that Perez is struggling with traction up front.
7/51 Verstappen so far not getting close to Leclerc and goes close to one of those tight walls around this rather tight track. When they whip past the castles in a chicane, it looks like a hairpin in a small country town, the type you need to beep at when turning round the corner.
6/51 Hamilton, in sixth, is closing on Pierre Gasly. Verstappen is closing on Leclerc who is also now closing on Perez. Verstappen is being told to use the overtake button by his team, which may be part of the problem in his failure so far to get past Leclerc.
5/51 Verstappen has the DRS as he attacks Leclerc on the straight, but the man from Monaco keeps ahead. Why always those two in these races? Perez has time and space to head out in front.
4/51 Perez is blazing away at the front, while in 11th and 12tn Ricciardo and Norris battle it out, the two team members. Sainz is getting distanced from Verstappen, meanwhile, and there’s a Leclerc sandwich up at the front.
3/51 Nicholas Daniel Latifi, the only driver not to score a point this season and Lewis Hamilton’s nemesis, gets a 15-second penalty for his engineer not clearing the track properly at the start.
2/51 Verstappen is going 15kph quicker than the Ferraris on the straight, and that tells the difference in racing terms. Leclerc may have locked up and allowed Perez to get through but at least he closed the gate on Verstappen.
1/51 And away we go, the green flag waves, and Perez immediately steals the lead from Leclerc who locked up, and then Verstappen holds off Sainz, who has a few nibbles. Perez tries to speed away, what a start for the Red Bull second-stringer. Great piece of driving from last year’s winner, opening up a gap of 1.3 seconds. The Red Bulls clearly have the pace.
The parade lap gets underway, the drivers warming up/cooling their tyres. The tyre strategy will play its part in today’s heat in the Land of Fire. It is reportedly 48 degrees in the pit lane. Phew, what a scorcher.
Not long now, and the grid is cleared as the drivers get ready to attack the lights.
Nico Rosberg was banned from media duties at this year’s race due to his refusal to have a Covid vaccine.
WHO WINS IN BAKU? 🏆
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 12, 2022
Will we have another first-time winner on the Caspian Sea coast? 👀#AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/8TyYNkF59j
Into the grid walk, where George Russell admits Mercedes are lacking a bit of speed and bemoans his car smashing into the ground. Perez on being second on the grid: “If i get it, I go for it.” Verstappen: “It’s a bit warmer, hopefully we have a good tyre deck.” Toto Wolff on the porpoising: “We really need to find a solution to that. It’s really compressing the spine.” He even suggests Lewis Hamilton might not complete the course but says “this is not just a Mercedes thing”.
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It’s 27 degrees in Baku, which is hot but there’s been hotter, as the Azeri national anthem blares out.
It's hotting up on the grid 😅#AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/IDtoRH0b1W
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 12, 2022
Gary Naylor has been admiring the scenery: “Sunrise over the Caspian from Baku’s Old City is quite a sight, but it looks like they’ve put quite a few obstacles in the way of one of humankind’s most ancient views.”
Last year’s Azeri GP was highly dramatic, you may recall.
The race was won by Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, a superb drive for his second F1 victory, but it was overshadowed by the drama whereby both title protagonists, Hamilton and Max Verstappen, failed to score a point. Verstappen suffered a tyre failure late in the race, costing him a likely win, and Hamilton made a highly unusual error to drop from second to 15th on the penultimate lap. Both incidents will elicit serious investigations.
Lewis Hamilton continues to struggle, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep fighting for what he believes in.
The FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem, caused controversy this week when he was quoted pointing out that in the days of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost they just got on and drove, whereas modern drivers use F1 as a platform, referencing the likes of Hamilton, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Britain’s Lando Norris speaking out about human rights, LGBQT+ support and mental health.
F1 schism with FIA deepens after controversial decisions in MonacoRead more
In Azerbaijan on Friday, Hamilton underlined he had no intention of stepping back and urged more drivers to become involved. “Formula 1 continues to be an important platform to use our voices,” he said.
“For every single one of us here to do more, to speak out more, to spark more conversations. Creating a more inclusive environment is so important, and focusing on creating better diversity within your organisation and within the sport. But it’s moving at a slow pace. I encourage all drivers to be more outspoken and speak about what they care about.”
Tony Dodgins reported on yesterday’s qualifying.
Leclerc, too, is dynamite around the challenging 3.7 miles, and is the first man to take more than one pole position at the track. A feature of the season has been Ferrari’s superiority over a single lap but Red Bull’s advantage in race trim, with stronger straight-line speed and more benign tyre usage often allowing Verstappen to overhaul Leclerc.
Yet Leclerc, who only suffered at the hands of questionable Ferrari race strategy in Monaco, remains optimistic. “The pole lap felt really good,” he said. “I’m excited for the race. Tyre management is a big thing here and when we brought out a car upgrade in Spain we made a step forward, which we didn’t get to see in Monaco. I’m excited for the race.”
F1 Drivers’ Championship 2022 standings ahead of Baku
- 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 125
- 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 116
- 3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 110
- 4 George Russell Mercedes 84
- 5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 83
- 6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 50
- 7 Lando Norris McLaren 48
- 8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 40
- 9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 30
- 10 Kevin Magnussen Haas 15
- =11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 11
- =11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 11
- 13 Fernando Alonso Alpine 10
- 14 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 6
- 15 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 5
- 16 Alex Albon Williams 3
- 17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 2
- 18 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo 1
Final Positions after Qualifying:
- 1 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1min 41.359secs
- 2 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:41.641
- 3 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:41.706
- 4 Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:41.814
- 5 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:42.712
- 6 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:42.845
- 7 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:42.924
- 8 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:43.056
- 9 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Aston Martin 1:43.091
- 10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Alpine 1:43.173
- 11 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:43.398
- 12 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) McLaren 1:43.574
- 13 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:43.585
- 14 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:43.790
- 15 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:44.444
- 16 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:44.643
- 17 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:44.719
- 18 Nicholas Latifi (Can) Williams 1:45.367
- 19 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:45.371
- 20 Mick Schumacher (Ger) Haas F1 1:45.775
Preamble
Charles Leclerc on pole, a familiar story, now can he convert that into a victory. He starts at the tip of the grid for the sixth time this season, having only converted two of those into victories. Sergio Perez, the winner in Monaco last time out, when Leclerc was cursing his team for their pit strategy, is in second and Max Verstappen in third, as Ferrari and Red Bull continue hog the front of the grid. The title race is close, though Ferrari cannot convert their single-lap superiority over the long form. Red Bell continue to be stronger in straight-line speed. Behind them, that George Russell is quicker than Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes is a continuing sub-plot, but the action, the juice is likely to be up at the front. Behind them, the tight and often scenic streets of Baku will probably throw up a few scenarios that the protagonists will have to negotiate.
The lights go up at 12pm UK time. Join me.
