Sunny. Dry. Air +25С, route +42…41С
In 2023, a new sprint weekend format debuted in Baku, which seemed successful at first glance. There was only one practice session left, but the traditional Grand Prix was saved – with qualifying on Friday and a race on Sunday, and a sprint with separate qualifying on Saturday. The stage in Baku always turns out to be spectacular, and the sprint made it even more fun.
Charles Leclerc won the main qualifier and the Sprint Shootout, but Sergio Perez finished first in the sprint.
Logan Sargent did not participate in the sprint – Williams did not have time to restore the car after the accident, but everything was fixed before the race. Alpine broke the closed park rules while working with Esteban Ocon’s car, so he started from the pit lane in both the sprint and race on Sunday.
Haas F1 also violated the conditions of the closed park by changing the suspension settings of Nico Hulkenberg’s car – yesterday he complained about the rapid wear of the rear tires and copied the settings from Magnussen, who had no such problems. Niko also started from the pit lane.
The front row of the grid was shared by Leclerc and Verstappen, Perez and Sainz started from second, Hamilton and Alonso started from third.
For the first time in the season, Pirelli brought the softest line-ups on the podium – C3, C4 and C5 as Hard, Medium and Soft. De Vries, Okon and Hulkenberg started on Hard, the rest opted for Medium.
Leclerc kept the lead at the start. In the first six positions have been preserved. Magnussen damaged the front wing by colliding with Bottas from behind. Stroll and Russell each gained two positions, Bottas lost five.
Top ten in round 2: Leclerc – Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Hamilton – Alonso – Stroll – Norris – Russell – Tsunoda.
On lap 4, Verstappen overtook Leclerc to lead the race and pulled away immediately, avoiding a counter-attack.
On lap 6, Pérez overtook Leclerc to move up to second.
Ocon and Hulkenberg were ahead of Gasly, who dropped to last position.
In lap 7 Bottas changed tires, in lap 8 Albon, in lap 9 Tsunoda, Piastri and Sargent, in lap 10 Hamilton and Norris, in lap 11 Verstappen.
On lap 11, de Vries broke his front suspension at turn five, hit a wall and came to rest in the turn six safety pocket. The safety car drove off.
Magnussen, Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll, Russell and Zhou changed tyres. Before entering the pit lane, Russell overtook Stroll.
Top ten behind the safety car: Perez – Leclerc – Verstappen – Sainz – Alonso – Russell – Stroll – Ocon – Hulkenberg – Hamilton.
A restart was announced on the 14th lap. Hamilton for Hulkenberg, Verstappen – Leclerc, Alonso – Sainz.
Russell handed the position back to Stroll to avoid a penalty.
On lap 15, Hamilton overtook Russell for seventh.
Top ten in round 16: Perez – Verstappen – Leclerc – Alonso – Sainz – Stroll – Hamilton – Russell – Ocon – Hulkenberg.
Stroll hit the wall with his left front wheel and drove on.
On lap 17, Zhou overtook Magnussen for 16th. On lap 19, Magnussen regained his position.
Perez and Verstappen exchanged the best laps, but Sergio held onto a lead of about one and a half seconds for a long time, then it gradually started to increase.
On lap 20, Hamilton overtook Stroll for sixth.
On lap 24, Gasly pitted.
On lap 33, Gasly overtook Bottas for 18th.
Top ten in round 35: Perez – Verstappen – Leclerc – Alonso – Sainz – Hamilton – Stroll – Russell – Ocon – Hulkenberg.
On lap 35, Bottas changed tires.
On the 37th lap, on the engineer’s orders, Zhou turned into the pits, where he stopped.
On lap 43, Gasly overtook Sargent for 16th.
On lap 46 Norris was ahead of Hulkenberg, in 47 laps Tsunoda, in 48 laps Piastri, in 49 laps Albon.
Russell made a brake error and was caught in a safety pocket at the first corner, but continued.
On lap 50, Russell pitted and received a Soft kit to secure the best lap.
Hulkenberg and Okon drove on the Hard starter kit for almost the entire race – the teams waited with red flags for a possible stop of the race, but this did not happen. On the 50th lap Niko changed tires, on the 51st – Esteban, almost knocking down the fans who suddenly poured into the pit lane
Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with his second win of the season and 33 points per stage. Max Verstappen finished second – the third time this season that Red Bull Racing won the double. Charles Leclerc climbed to the third step of the podium.
The fight continues next week in Miami.
Racing results
| Pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Pete |
| 1. C. Perez | Red Bull | 1:32:42.436 | 198.074 | 1 |
| 2. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | +2,137 | 197,998 | 1 |
| 3. Sch.Lecler | Ferrari | +21,217 | 197,321 | 1 |
| 4. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | +22.024 | 197,293 | 1 |
| 5. K. Sainz | Ferrari | +45,491 | 196,467 | 1 |
| 6. L. Hamilton | Mercedes | +46,145 | 196,444 | 1 |
| 7. L. Walk | Aston Martin | +51,617 | 196.253 | 1 |
| 8.D Russell | Mercedes | +74,240 | 195,465 | 2 |
| 9. L. Norris | McLaren | +80,376 | 195,253 | 1 |
| 10. Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +83,862 | 195.132 | 1 |
| 11. O. Piastri | McLaren | +86,501 | 195.041 | 1 |
| 12. A. Albon | Willems | +88,623 | 194,968 | 1 |
| 13. K. Magnussen | hare | +89,729 | 194,929 | 1 |
| 14.P Gasly | Alps | +91.332 | 194,874 | 2 |
| 15. E. Okon | Alps | +97,794 | 194,652 | 1 |
| 16. L. Sargent | Willems | +100.943 | 194,543 | 1 |
| 17. N. Hulkenberg | hare | +1 circle | 193,843 | 1 |
| 18. V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | +1 circle | 193,524 | 3 |
best lapTime: George Russell (Mercedes) – 1:43.320 (51 laps, 209.062 km/h)
Reasons for leaving
| Pilot | Team | circles | Cause |
| N. de Vries | AlphaTauri | 09 | mechanical problems |
| G. Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 36 | cooling system |
Championship position : Individual
Championship Position: Constructors’ Championship
| Team | engine | Glasses | |
| = | 1 Oracle Red Bull Racing | Honda RBPT | 180 |
| = | 2. Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | Mercedes | 87 |
| = | 3. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | Mercedes | 76 |
| = | 4 Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari | 62 |
| = | 5 McLaren F1 team | Mercedes | 14 |
| = | 6. BWT Alpine F1 Team | Renault | 8 |
| = | 7. MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | 7 |
| = | 8. Alfa Romeo F1 team commitment | Ferrari | 6 |
 |
9 Scuderia AlphaTauri | Honda RBPT | 2 |
 |
10Williams Racing | Mercedes | 1 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
