Max Verstappen sped away with yet another win on Sunday.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw Red Bull go 1–2 once again for the third time this season after both Ferrari drivers were forced to retire early in the race. But for the first time since Australia, Mercedes finished back-to-back: George Russell rounded out the podium and Lewis Hamilton overcame back pain to take fourth while he visibly struggled to get out of his car.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff told Hamilton after the race, “Lewis, we all know that this is a bit of a s---box at the moment. And sorry for the back also, we will sort ourselves out.” Russell raised safety concerns about the bouncing again this weekend, calling the current regulations “a recipe for disaster.” Hamilton revealed to Sky Sports after the race that he couldn’t “express the pain that you experience, particularly on the straight here” and he was “praying” for the Grand Prix to end.
Verstappen now extends his championship lead from nine points to 34, taking his fourth win in five races and becoming the sixth different winner of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Here are three takeaways from the City of Winds:
Reliability issues affect the championship fight.
Ferrari’s championship hopes went up in smoke and were thrown into question in Baku as both of its drivers didn’t make it halfway through the race.
Carlos Sainz, who had already recorded two consecutive DNFs this season coming into Baku, pulled into Turn 4 after nine laps when “something failed,” the Spaniard said over the team radio. It was later revealed that it was due to a hydraulic problem.
The Prancing Horse’s fate rested on Charles Leclerc, who started on pole but was edged out by Sergio Pérez in the first lap. When the virtual safety car was deployed after Sainz’s retirement, the Monegasque driver flew down to the pits to switch to hard tires. He emerged P3 behind the Red Bulls with 42 laps to go, taking a massive gamble.
And it looked like it might have paid off.
Leclerc was rapidly gaining ground, and Pérez and Verstappen pitted at lap 17 and 19 seconds, respectively. The Ferrari star had just over 13 seconds on Verstappen when disaster struck.
Plumes of smoke filled the air behind the No. 16—a power unit issue, Ferrari later said.
“It hurts. We really need to look into that for it not to happen again,” Leclerc said to Sky Sports. “I can’t really find the right words to describe. It’s very disappointing.”
This marked Leclerc’s second engine failure in three races, which also cost him the win at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“We’ve been fast and we didn’t have particularly big problems in the first part of the season,” he told Sky Sports. “Now, it seems that we have a bit more compared to the beginning of the season, when we didn’t change anything. If anything, we made the thing better.
“So it’s difficult to understand for now, but we will have to analyze obviously. I don’t have the full picture of what happened today.”
The latest power unit problem could put him a step closer to a grid penalty. F1 drivers are limited to just three engines in a season, and if they use more, they have to start further back on the grid in the next race.
When asked about the penalty situation, Leclerc said, “I don’t know, I have no news. Obviously, there still is disappointment. I came from the car straight to here and didn’t speak to anybody from the team, so I don’t know what went wrong.”
The latest DNF dropped Leclerc to third in the driver standings. Verstappen leads with 150, Pérez sits second at 129 and the Monegasque rounds out the group with 116. But Russell is closing the gap in fourth, just 17 points behind Leclerc.
But this isn’t the first time this season that reliability issues have thrown a wrench in the championship race. In the first three races, Verstappen also recorded two DNFs due to a fuel pump problem in Bahrain and fuel leak in Melbourne. Pérez also faced a fuel pump issue, retiring in Bahrain on lap 56 of 57.
Red Bull leads the constructor standings with 279 points to Ferrari’s distant 199. Mercedes, meanwhile, has been one of the more reliable teams on the grid and is closing the gap with 161 points in third. Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports after the race that he isn’t overly concerned after Sunday’s DNFs.
IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
Hello, McLaren and AlphaTauri.
Two midfield teams had dynamic performances from their four drivers in a day riddled with four DNFs and shadows casted on the Baku circuit.
McLaren has been in the headlines as of late due to questions about Daniel Ricciardo’s performance compared to teammate Lando Norris. Ricciardo reaffirmed this weekend that “My contract’s clear with the team, until the end of next year I’m fully committed.”
Coming into Baku, there was a 37-point difference between Norris and Ricciardo, who had only finished in the top 10 once over the span of seven races. That is, until Azerbaijan.
Both drivers secured points on Sunday as Ricciardo finished eighth while the 22-year-old Norris was right on his tail. The Honey Badger climbed from P12 to P8 with a single stop, assisting with defending Norris throughout the beginning portions of the race before the young star dove into the pits.
Meanwhile, it looked like AlphaTauri could have followed suit with double points as well until an orange and black flag created a speed bump in Yuki Tsunoda’s day. The Japanese driver was forced to endure an extra pit for a broken rear wing and finished 13th.
“I’m really disappointed today,” Tsunoda said in a statement. “Until the reliability issue, the race was going really well for me, we were really in control of the tires and the pace was good, so I think we could’ve easily finished in P6 today. I wasn’t fully aware of the issue, as it wasn’t causing too much of a change to our performance, that’s why I was a bit shocked when I was called in.
“It’s such a shame to be coming away without points from my side of the garage, as the team have done such a great job this weekend and we’ve been strong in every session.”
Meanwhile, teammate Pierre Gasly ran in the top five for a substantial portion of the race after qualifying P6. He had his hands full with seven-time world champion Hamilton, holding him off until lap 44. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team tweeted, “Did Pierre Gasly like that? Maybe not this time.”
The Frenchman rested comfortably at fifth for the remainder of the race, securing much-needed points. Despite the joke from Mercedes, it’s likely that this race will be liked by Pierre Gasly after two DNFs this season.
Fernando Alonso overtakes Michael Schumacher.
Yes, you read that right—the Alpine driver has surpassed one of the seven-time world champion’s records.
Alonso made his Formula One debut in Australia—7,771 days ago. He recorded nine DNFs that season in the span of 17 races, but the Spaniard went on to be a two-time world champion. Schumacher previously held the record at 21 years and three months, but Alonso surpassed that mark during qualifying.
Interestingly enough, no other current driver ranks in the top 10 for the most time in the pinnacle of motorsport.
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The last time Alonso won a race was in 2013 at the Spanish Grand Prix while with Ferrari. He then went on to take a two-year break in ’19. But since returning, the Spaniard has been consistent.
The Alpine driver held off the dynamic McLaren duo to finish seventh with his third consecutive top-10 finish. He’s recorded 32 career victories and ranks sixth on the all-time winners list.
