In Pictures: Azerbaijan 2021
Drama at Baku!
On Friday, it seemed Red Bull would dominate the weekend with a strong Ferrari a bit behind and a struggling Mercedes further back. Then on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton showed why he's a seven-times world champion, driving a difficult Mercedes W12 around Baku, making life a bit harder for the Red Bulls and the Ferrari duo.
During Qualifying we saw four red flags, first it was Lance Stroll, driving his Aston Martin into the T15 barrier. No sooner had the session restarted than Antonio Giovinazzi buried his Alfa in the tires, also without a time. The next driver to bring out the red was Daniel Ricciardo, who locked his left front and slid into the wall at Turn Three in Q2, sentencing himself to 13th on the grid. The final red flag came when Yuki Tsunoda, who did a great job to reach Q3 for the first time, buried his AlphaTauri in the Turn Three tires. A few feet behind him, Carlos Sainz, when seeing Tsunoda's accident, could not turn in and crashed into the barriers trying to avoid the AlphaTauri. Thus ending all opportunities for faster laps. At the end it was Charles Leclerc taking his second Pole Position in a row with Hamilton in second and championship leader Verstappen in third.
On Sunday, the race started with Hamilton passing Leclerc for the lead on lap 2, with Verstappen taking second spot on lap 7 and Perez third a lap later. On Lap 12, Hamilton pitted for hards, but he was held up by Gasly’s AlphaTauri, cruising past in the pit lane, and suffered a 4.6 second stop to emerge fourth. With Red Bull wary of the undercut, Verstappen pitted a lap later for hards and ended up in front thanks to a 1.9 second stop. Perez pitted a lap later but ended up behind Verstappen but ahead of Hamilton.
But on lap 31, Lance Stroll's left rear tire exploded while he was going at full speed on the main straight losing control of his Aston Martin and hitting the barrier hard. He was shaken, but fortunately unhurt. The Safety Car was deployed for a lengthy clean-up of aero parts and shards of carbon-fiber strewn on track.
And then, on lap 47, it was Max Verstappen's left rear tire exploding, again on the main straight and causing a second high speed crash. A Safety Car followed and then a red flag on Lap 48. Everyone came into the pits for a lengthy 35-minute stop while the track was cleaned up. Drivers were allowed to change tires and make any safety repairs deemed necessary, in Hamilton's case, a new front wing was fitted as the old one had a visible hole and cracks. Cars left the pits on lap 49 and a standing start was done on lap 50 of 51.
Upon the restart, Hamilton tried a bold move on Perez into turn 1 but locked up his brakes missing the turn completely and ending up last. Eventually he would finish 15th. Up front, it was Perez winning for the second time in F1. With Sebastian Vettel finishing an unexpected second from 11th on the grid and Pierre Gasly, having held off Leclerc’s numerous attempts to overtake, finished third to leave the pole-sitter fourth.
““We love Baku! It feels amazing to get my first win with Red Bull. The Team did a tremendous job and I want to thank Mr Mateschitz for this great opportunity and giving me the seat. I feel very sorry for Max because he deserved the win and a 1-2 for the Team would’ve been very enjoyable. It was a crazy rollercoaster of a race, we were basically flat out from the very first lap and I had Lewis behind pushing me so I couldn’t breathe, it was very challenging but we kept our focus. Everything worked perfectly today apart from the restart at the end where I just had no grip. I thought I cannot lose this race two laps from the flag so I broke as late as I could into Turn 1 and then I saw Lewis locking up and go straight on into the run off. It just shows how on the limit we are, the speeds we are doing are tremendous and I am sorry for Lewis because it’s very painful when these things happen but we are all vulnerable to mistakes. We have to enjoy today, our pace was great and we have a very good race car. We are working flat out and giving our best every week, it’s only race six and there’s more to come from me, the relationship with Max and the Team is great and there’s still a long way to go in this championship.””
““I think it was a great race. We had good pace; that was key. I had a good start, made some positions straight away, looked after my tires as soon as everybody went to the pits. I had really good pace to overcut I think Yuki at least and then obviously the re-start worked brilliantly for me and got another two positions there. Yeah, we obviously had fresher tires, which I guess helped, warming up the tires later on. Yeah, a great day. I’m over the moon. For the team it’s great, obviously, a podium. We didn’t expect that when we came here. Already on Friday, even though we were nowhere, it felt good. I was quite relaxed. Yesterday we didn’t quite it but today, even sweeter.””
““What an incredible weekend, topping FP3, then P4 in Qualifying and now a podium today – I’m so happy for the guys, it was a great result! What a way to do it as well, the last two laps were so intense with Charles and I really had to fight hard to get that podium. The entire race was really full-on, we managed to keep up with the guys ahead but from the middle of the race we had an engine issue and we started to lose some power in the straight, so I knew it was going to be hard until the end, but we managed to hold on to P4. After the restart I thought that Charles would pass me on the straight because we had lost performance, but I saw the podium ahead of me and I tried everything, I just wanted it so badly. It was hard but fair racing, just as we like it. The car was incredible all weekend, it felt really good, and it’s just a fantastic result for the whole team. I’m really pleased to reward them with a podium. Moving forward to France, we need to analyze what went well this weekend and see how we can use these learnings at the next race. It’s my home race so I really want to do well there but for now it’s time to celebrate – I’ve already had a Red Bull, but I think we’ll be having something else tonight too!””
