Perez benefits from safety car and leads Red Bull 1-2 at Baku

Red Bull Racing secured the right outcome at the Baku by taking a 1-2 end for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen was intently matched all through the race whereas closest challenger Charles Leclerc completed 19 seconds behind.

The begin was pretty clear with Leclerc simply taking the lead from pole place, adopted with out problem by Verstappen and Perez. Sainz, Hamilton and Alonso additionally maintained their positions although that required a little bit of defending forward of Turn 2 from Hamilton. Behind them Stroll gained two positions and moved up into seventh. Russell additionally gained two into ninth. The finest begin was for Magnussen who moved up from sixteenth to thirteenth.

When DRS bought enabled on lap 3 each Red Bulls have been shut sufficient to make use of it whereas Sainz in fourth could not. Hamilton, Alonso and Stroll have been nicely positioned to get nearer to the Ferrari driver.

The second go throughout the end line with DRS enabled was the appropriate one for Verstappen. He simply made it previous Leclerc who was then dropped proper into the trail of Perez. The Mexican predictably handed Leclerc for second place one lap later in the very same vogue.

The first pitstops occurred round lap 8 with Albon one of many first. Hamilton pitted on lap 10 after seeing the hole to Sainz improve as much as 3 seconds whereas Alonso was inside half a second. One lap later Verstappen pitted after seeing Perez shut in and reporting a lot of sliding.

20 seconds after Verstappen emerged bck on monitor the safety car was introduced out as a result of Nyck Devries ended up caught on a run-off space. He broke the steering rod of his left entrance suspension by clipping the wall and had no strategy to proceed. This was clearly excellent news for many who hadn’t pitted but. Practically everyone did a cease to modify to onerous tyres bar Ocon and Hulkenberg who had began on onerous tyres anyway.

As the safety stood nonetheless to select up the chief, Perez appeared near an unsafe launch. Russell in the meantime got here up alongside Stroll at the pit entry to boost some eyebrows whereas at Aston Martin they displayed excellent pit work by finishing stops for his or her automobiles in fast succession.

The race was restarted on lap 15 with Verstappen quickly difficult Leclerc and instantly taking second place. Lance Stroll bought again at Russell and handed him forward of Turn 2 whereas Alonso cleared Sainz for 4th place. Back at the straight Russell misplaced one other place as Hamilton breezed previous with DRS large open. Russell apologised to his crew over the radio, saying “well that was a **** restart. Sorry guys”.

With your entire prime 8 on similar tyres and practically similar tyre age nothing a lot occurred aside from some challenges that did not actually materialise in overtaking. The solely actual place change was for Hamilton as he gained a place after Stroll went large at the nook main into the principle straight, making him a straightforward goal.

As the tyres pale for everybody no person in factors scoring positions selected to pit leaving everyone to focus to finish the race safely and in all probability with out attempting any overtakes. Hulkenberg was worst off and nearly went backwards after getting a “no” from his crew when asking for a pitstop. Curiously he nonetheless needed to make his single cease, which he finally solely did for the final lap (identical to Ocon).

As the tip got here close to, Perez, Verstappen and Alonso exchanged quickest laps till Russell determined one lap from the tip to pit and tackle a set of softs to attempt to settle that battle. And so he did, finishing the ultimate lap in 1:43.370, practically a full second quicker than second finest which was Verstappen’s last lap.