Verstappen wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Perez behind bringing a 1-2 for Red Bull, unfortunately for Ferrari who suffered a doubled DNF.
via @fia.official Instagram
As ‘it’s lights out and away we go’, the pole sitter Charles Leclerc lost the lead in turn 1 to Sergio Perez. Carlos Sainz brought out a Virtual Safety Car after his Ferrari stopped with a ‘hydraulic failure’ on lap 9. That made Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton, Vettel and Yuki Tsunoda pit. Leclerc had a prolonged stop, that caused both Redbull’s to go ahead of him.
Verstappen took the lead on lap 15 after passing Perez in turn 1. Perez then pitted on lap 17, after the engineer told him not to fight Verstappen, and suffered a slow stop which made him rejoin 3rd. Verstappen pitted on lap 19 and rejoined behind the Ferrari. Unfortunately, the second Ferrari had to retire after his power unit failed and smoked.
Verstappen regained the lead. Magnussen’s Haas failed as well on lap 33 and caused another virtual safety car in which the Redbull and Mercedes drivers pitted again. 4 Ferrari engines are out of the race after Zhou retired as well.
Tsunoda had a DRS flap failure and he pitted for some repairs which required ‘duct tape’:
He was used not to use his DRS again, but he dropped out of the points.
Latifi was handed from the beginning 10s-penalty, later on another 5s for ignoring blue flags.
With a 1-2 for Redbull, behind were the Mercedes, with Russell in 3rd and 4th for Hamilton. Gasly in 5th, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, McLaren 8-9 with Ricciardo first. Esteban Ocon last in points. Valtteri Bottas 11th followed by Albon, Tsunoda, Schumacher, Latifi, Stroll and DNF: Magnussen, Zhou, Leclerc and Sainz.
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