The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has the reputation of bringing twists and turns, being one of the most entertaining races on the F1 calendar. For the 3rd time, it has provided us with another amazing Grand Prix.
Going into this race, Max Verstappen and Red Bull had the opportunity to further solidify their advantage over Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes given the horrible weekend Mercedes had at Monaco. Based off of the qualifying sessions on Saturday, Red Bull proved to be a lot stronger. With Charles Leclerc putting his Ferrari in Pole position, the Grand Prix had all the makings of being spectacular but I never expected the race to end the way it did.
In my humble opinion, up until Lance Stroll’s sudden exit from the race, it was not quite the sight to see. Sergio Perez was doing his due diligence by being right up at the front with Verstappen, putting pressure on Hamilton who was struggling with the balance of his car. Sebastian Vettel led the race at one point by staying out for as long as he could before he needed to do his pitstop. As a Vettel fan, it was absolutely fantastic to see him up there!
Lando Norris had successfully executed the undercut on Valtteri Bottas who was also having a difficult race in his Mercedes. After Stroll crashed out, it became clear his tyre gave out in the investigation. This brought about the wonder of whether this was an isolated incident or if the drivers remaining in the race should worry about their ability to finish on a 1 stop strategy.
We came to find out later, on lap 47, the worry was warranted as what happened to Stroll happened exactly the same to Verstappen. At that moment, I believed that Hamilton would do everything in his power to climb back to the top of the Driver’s Championship Standings. Due to the amount of debris on the track, the race was red flagged even with two laps to go. At that time, Perez was in first, followed by Hamilton, Vettel and Pierre Gasly. An announcement of a standing start displayed a small taste of what a Sprint Race would look like for Formula 1. I also believed Hamilton would grab this opportunity to finish P1 and finish on an extreme high after what was a lacklustre weekend for the team.
Stroll and Verstappen were both victims of dangerous tyre failures [Images from Formula 1 Twitter @F1]
As the remaining drivers on the grid aligned for the start, a significant amount of smoke was appearing from Hamilton’s brakes, substantially more than the rest of the grid. Some smoke can be expected due to the high temperatures the brakes reach to but that expanse seemed concerning. Sadly, when Hamilton arrived at Turn 1, the car locked up driving head on, making him drop to right to the back of the grid.
Gasly had to get those elbows out for those last two laps battling Leclerc who kept coming for him and almost passed him. Yet, Gasly managed to maintain his P3. Perez just about finished in P1, having to stop his car almost immediately after he crossed the finish line, earning his first win with Red Bull. Vettel not only finished in P2, but also deservingly received the Driver of the Day.
Probably the best part of the race for me was the extreme happiness of the three podium finishing teams. Even though Verstappen retired from the race out of no fault of his own, it must have been amazing to see Perez on the top step of the podium. As a fan, it was nice to see a podium that did not include Verstappen, Hamilton and Bottas (as the joke on Reddit goes: ‘there are only three sure things in life; Death, Taxes and Ham Bot Ver’)
For Mercedes and Hamilton, it might be a weekend to delete from their memory, as even though he finished the race, he is no closer to Verstappen. Although, crucially, he isn’t much further either so the battle between these two drivers and teams lives on for another race.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a race that was unfortunately cancelled due to the pandemic last year. However, this year it definitely reminded us of why we absolutely love that street circuit after last weekend’s race. For the fourth time, Well Done Baku! I cannot wait to see what happens at Paul Ricard in France.
Everyone's new favourite podium [Image from Mark Sutton]
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