Sergio Perez won the sprint in Baku

Sunny. Dry. Air + 22C, orbit + 36 … 33C

In 2023, a new sprint weekend format debuted in Baku, for which Saturday was selected. Now this short race had its own short qualifying – Sprint Shootout, held in the morning.

According to the results, the first row on the starting field was shared by Leclerc and Perez, the second – Verstappen and Russell, the third – Sainz and Hamilton.

After the morning accident, Williams did not have time to repair Sargent’s car, which had had an accident, and take him out of the race. Alpine breached the closed park regime and repaired Esteban Ocon’s car – with the result that the Frenchman was penalized by starting from the pit lane in both the sprint and Grand Prix on Sunday.

As before, the top eight riders were awarded points in the sprint – from eight for first place to one for eighth.

Riders were free to choose tires. The wear on the renovated asphalt of the Baku highway was minor. Norris and Bottas opted for Soft, the rest started on Medium.

Leclerc kept the lead at the start. Russell made contact in the battle against Verstappen, but took the lead. Norris was ahead of Stroll. Alonso Elbona.

Yuki Tsunoda lost the right rear tire after contact with the barrier – it rolled on the track. The Race Directorate has announced a virtual safety car mode.

Top ten in round 2: Leclerc – Perez – Russell – Verstappen – Sainz – Hamilton – Alonso – Albon – Norris – Stroll.

Tsunoda drove to the pits, where he changed tires, but the suspension geometry was broken, on the next lap he pitted again and retired. After the race, the stewards fined AlphaTauri €5,000 for not checking the car carefully enough.

The safety car drove away – it was necessary to remove the wreckage. Okon changed tires.

On the fifth lap behind the safety car, Leclerc uttered the word “cat”, which was interpreted by everyone as a message about a puncture, but it turned out that he, following Maylander, went around a cat that went over the track ran.

In the 6th round, a restart was announced. Leclerc kept the lead. Verstappen was ahead of Russell in the battle for third, Alonso – who battled Sainz Hamilton in the battle for sixth.

Top ten in round 7: Leclerc – Perez – Verstappen – Russell – Sainz – Alonso – Hamilton – Albon – Stroll – Norris.

On lap 8, Pérez overtook Leclerc for the lead.

On lap 9, Piastri overtook Norris for 10th.

On lap 10, Hulkenberg and Magnussen overtook Norris – the soft tires lost efficiency and Lando pitted. Bottas, who started at Soft, also lost ground.

Magnussen was ahead of Hulkenberg for 11th. Stroll – Albona in contention for eighth.

top ten on lap 12: Perez – Leclerc – Verstappen – Russell – Sainz – Alonso – Hamilton – Stroll – Albon – Piastri.

On lap 13, Okon changed tires for the second time.

Zhou and Gasly got ahead of Hulkenberg – Niko’s car lost speed due to rear tire granulation. De Vries passed Bottas, followed by Hulkenberg.

Sergio Perez won the sprint in Baku and thus reduced the gap to his partner to 13 points in the individual classification. Charles Leclerc finished second, Max Verstappen finished third.

After the finish, Max had an emotional conversation with Russell about the first corner incident where his car sustained minor damage.

Sprint results

best round: Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) – 1:43.616 (lap 11, 208.566 km/h)

Reasons for leaving

Championship position : Individual

Championship Position: Constructors’ Championship