And that folks is why the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is this writer’s personal favourite. We enjoyed a chaotic, frantic and, mostly brilliant race from the streets of Baku with certainly no shortage of talking points to take away…
Questions for Pirelli to answer…
Lance Stroll had done considerably less than 40 laps on his set of hard tyres and the strategy seemed to be working, with the Canadian sat in P4, although he was of course yet to stop. The horror crash on the main straight in Baku ended his race immediately at no fault of his own. The rear left tyre gave out with no prior warning in the data to suggest an issue. As a result, his car was sent left into the barrier whilst going nearly 200mph. The safety car came out, but then just several laps later, the same happened to race leader Max Verstappen. The dutchman had put in a superb performance to lead comfortably, but again, that rear left tyre practically burst. In a car that was the quickest in track and a driver who was set to extend the lead at the top of the championship, Verstappen was visably frustrated, kicking his car as he retired to the pits. The red flag brought about a hectic finale of the race for fans to enjoy, but halting a race due to tyre concerns is something that Mario Isola and the rest of Pirelli will have to make sure never happens again. In the next two weeks before the trip to France, there is some serious investigating to be done.
Pèrez Masterclass leads to second ever win…
Although there is no doubt Sergio Perez had luck on his side to claim victory in Azerbaijan, the Mexican has done brilliantly to get up to P2 and then keep the Mercedes of Hamilton in his mirror for all of the race, after the pit stop jump he had made. The second driver seat at Red Bull has been arguably the hardest on the grid in recent years, but experience told here as Checo made sure Red Bull extended their lead at the top of the constructors championship standings. Whether he has quite the credentials or tools to challenge Max and Lewis at the top, may be a little premature. However, when we had the prospect of the Mexican not even being on the grid at one point last year, and now he is consistently turning in performances, it just shows Red Bull made the right decision to sign him up.
Seb shows us all he still has it…
Sebastian Vettel made history when he claimed Aston Martin Racing’s first ever podium finish this last Sunday with a stunning drive that illustrated his talent has gone absolutely nowhere. In what is by no means whatsoever the quickest car, an experienced and collected performance (of course coupled with a bit of luck in there also), saw him finish second and send the green team into a frenzy of celebration. The four time world champion has had his doubters at times this year, but with efforts like this, will surely have silenced them for a while. A deserved podium for the German, as well as another “Driver of the day” showing made fans rejoice across the world.
What did you just do? You just got another podium Pierre!!
Pierre Gasly claimed his first podium of the season, and his first since his maiden win last year, to complete a shocking yet amazing podium lineup. The Frenchman seemed destined for P4 at the Red Flag restart and despite coming under immense pressure from Leclerc in the Ferrari late on, managed to see out this terrific performance to claim a trophy. Pierre’s performances have been mostly stellar so far this season and you get the feeling there is more to come. A superb driver who consistently had put that Alpha Tauri much higher than it has any right to be. Despite Max having an excellent season and Checo showing his class, Pierre must be causing a few headaches in the Red Bull hierarchy. As much as Pierre deserved this, much praise should also go to his teammate Yuki Tsunoda for his best ever F1 finish down in P7.
Mercedes will want to move on from the streets… And fast!
Another weekend to forget for the silver arrows in which they saw both cars finish, but pointless. Lewis Hamilton had done extremely well to put his car into a competitive spot in qualifying on Saturday, and he had kept up that form to be sat P2 with only a couple of laps remaining. However, despite the whole “marathon not a sprint” talk, ‘THAT’ lockup saw his drop down from second to last in one corner. In what was a huge chance to relciam top spot in the drivers’ standings, instead ended up being honours even between the runaway two as both failed to score points. Across the garage, it was simply another miserable weekend for Valtteri Bottas as he didn’t have the pace at any stage. A poor weekend summed up when both Alfa Romeo drivers cruised by the Finn in the space of a lap. A unique podium as a result of no HAM-BOT-VER even scoring a point made this race about as exciting as it gets and made the championship picture, slightly more interesting.
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