F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Max Verstappen redeems Baku win
12th June 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured victory in Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the Dutch world champion finished the race 20 seconds ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez.
How the race unfolded…
As the lights went out, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc locked up into turn one and this allowed Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to take the lead of the race from P2. In the end, the Ferrari Monegasque managed to stay ahead of the defending world champion, Verstappen, and the Dutchman settled into his starting position: P3.
Soon after the start, following an investigation by the stewards, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was given a 10-second penalty for a starting grid infringement.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz became the first car to retire from the race as the Spaniard had a hydraulic issue. This brought out the Virtual Safety Car out on lap nine. As a result, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc committed to an early stop and swapped his yellow-ringed medium tyres for the white-ringed hard compounds.
On lap 15, Verstappen gained the lead of the race as the Dutch world champion went down the inside line, into turn one, and demoted Perez down to P2.
Out of the two Red Bulls, Perez was the first driver to pit as he swapped his used mediums for the hard tyres.
After a handful of laps behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finally moved back up the field to ninth after he overtook the Frenchman down into turn three.
It went from bad to worse for the Scuderia as Leclerc suffered an engine failure, on lap 20. Fortunately, the Monegasque was able to return to the pit lane to retire. This allowed both Red Bull’s to regain the lead with Verstappen out in front, ahead of Perez in P2, while Mercedes’ George Russell inherited the final podium spot.
Four laps later, yet another Ferrari-powered car to retire from the race as Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou was recalled ordered back to the pit lane.
As the session reached half-race distance, Verstappen had established a healthy 6.7 second lead ahead of Perez who remained in P2.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was forced to stop at the side of the track, in the final corners of the second sector, . The VSC was redeployed and both Red Bull’s ventured into the pit lane for a cheap stop.
This was soon followed by another stop for Russell and Hamilton. While Russell didn’t lose track position, his world champion teammate lost fifth to Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
However, the seven-time world champion dispatched the Japanese driver from fifth in quick fashion.
After the race got back underway, Tsunoda’s rear wing seemed to damage itself. The black and orange flag was shown to the Japanese Alpha Tauri driver, who pitted soon after. Instead of retiring the car, the Alpha Tauri mechanics decided to gaffer-tape the wing closed and sent Tsunoda back onto the track.
With Tsunoda’s rear-wing issue, Verstappen’s pit wall enginner came over the radio and warned the Dutchman not to use the DRS.
Latifi’s race had also gotten worse, after a 10-second penalty at the start, the Williams driver was given a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. The Canadian driver was dead last, out of the remaining cars running on track, 42-seconds behind his closest rival – Haas’ Mick Schumacher.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the race’s fifth retirement of the session as the Canadian was recalled back to the pit lane.
Podium:
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull
- George Russell, Mercedes
That’s it for the article: F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Max Verstappen redeems Baku win! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
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