And lastly, here’s our report from a day of high drama in Baku:
And here’s Sebastian Vettel: “[The first ever podium] is a big deal for the team. We had a good start, made some positions and looked after our tyres. We had really good pace at the [first] restart, which was brilliant for me, giving me another two positions. We preserved the tyres well and that was the secret to the pace we had. It was a great day overall. I’m over the moon for myself and for the team, it was great. A podium - we really didn’t expect that.”
Sergio Perez speaks: “Normally Baku is pretty crazy. I have to say sorry to Max, it would have been incredible to get that one-two for the team. But at the end, it was a fantastic day for us. We were close to retiring the car but luckily we managed to finish the race. This is definitely a strong boost of confidence for myself.”
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A helterskelter afternoon ends with Aston Martin getting their first ever F1 podium and Red Bull extending their lead in the constructors’ championship. Mercedes go home without a point. Tsunoda takes the best finish of his career so far, and Vettel enjoys his finest race since Mexico 2019. But what on earth happened to Hamilton at the restart?
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How they finished
1. Sergio Perez, Red Bull
2. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin +1.385
3. Pierre Gasly +2.762
4. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari+3.828
5. Lando Norris, McLaren +4.754
6. Fernando Alonso, Alpine +6.382
7. Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri +6.624
8. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +7.709
9. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren +8.874
10. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo +9.576
11. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo+10.254
12. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes +11.264
13. Mick Schumacher, Haas +14.241
14. Nikita Mazepin, Haas +14.315
15. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes+17.668
16. Nicholas Latifi, Williams +42.379 2
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Sergio Perez wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix!
Perez steams across the finish line as the winner, followed by the majestic Vettel and then Gasly in third. What a race! Lewis Hamilton had taken the lead after the restart when he locked up. He comes in 15th. Verstappen will be breathing a sigh of relief – he remains atop the drivers’ standings.
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Lap 50: Leclerc passes Gasly, Gasly passes Leclerc. Hamilton – not out of the race in fact – is down in 16th. Perez enters the last lap all set to win.
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Lap 49: Perez, Vettel, Gasly is how the current podium looks. Leclerc and Norris behind. Amazing stuff!
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Hamilton locks up on the restart!
Turn one, and Hamilton just ploughs straight on! His breaks – which were smoking on the grid – have locked up and he is out of the race!
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Vettel is the only driver in the top eight with a new set of tyres. He restarts in third – has he got it in him to pick off Hamilton and Perez…?
Another formation lap. Perez leads the 17 drivers out of the pit lane.
A minute until the restart. Hamilton has reminded his team that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint”. He’s talking about the championship rather than this race, which very much is a sprint.
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The restart will be a standing start.
SPRINT RACE!!
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) June 6, 2021
Lance Stroll is interviewed and seems suitably irked. “It was going well, we were overcutting the field and it looked a good opportunity for something big today, so it’s a shame,” he says through gritted teeth.
Arthur Graves writes: “No doubt the irony of being out with a puncture then everyone else having the opportunity to change their tyres will make Verstappen smile.” Indeed.
The race will resume at 18:10 local time – in 14 minutes.
Leaderboard
- . Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- . Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- . Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
- . Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri)
- . Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- . Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
- . Lando Norris (McLaren)
- . Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- . Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
- .. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
- .. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
- .. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
- .. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
- .. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
- .. George Russell (Williams)
- . Mick Schumacher (Haas)
- . Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
As the drivers get out to stretch their legs, Perez, Hamilton and Vettel are in the podium positions – it would be Aston Martin’s first podium in F1. Meanwhile Latifi is in trouble for not coming into the pits – he was told to “stay out” by his team over the radio
So then – the race has been suspended on lap 49 of 51, which leaves us with a two-lap dash for the win. Under red-flag conditions every driver is entitled to a change of tyres, so this will be a short, sharp sprint.
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“Have that”
Incredible drama in Baku. This could alter the course of the championship. Verstappen skulks over to his team, shaking his head non-stop in a state of simmering rage. “I think it’s a tyre issue. A tyre failure,” says Horner.
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Race suspended
The red flags are out - the race will be suspended while the debris is cleared.
Lap 48: Verstappen has been flawless today and will come away without a point. He boots his tyre in frustration, leaving no doubts about what happened – huge questions will be asked of Pirelli after today. This race could finish behind a safety car.
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Verstappen crashes out!
Lap 47: Wow! Verstappen, coasting to victory mere seconds ago, is now out of the race, crashing on the main straight after what looks like a failure of his left rear. He clambers out of the cockpit, devastated but unharmed. Perez escapes in the lead and the safety car is deployed.
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Lap 46: Five laps to go and the imperious Verstappen leads by a tidy 4.4sec, followed by Perez, Hamilton, Vettel (4.5sec behind third) and Gasly.
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Lap 44: Tsunoda sits in seventh and has had a good race today having crashed in qualifying. Another fastest lap for Hamilton .
Lap 43: “Can’t get any closer,” says Hamilton, languishing a second behind Perez in third. This is all set to be a very glorious day indeed for Red Bull.
Lap 41: Verstappen has never finished in the top three in Baku, nor even led a lap. He is dominant out in front with 10 laps to go, 4secs ahead of Perez. George Russell, meanwhile, is within 2secs of Valtteri Bottas.
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Lap 40: “That’s not possible! What the…? squawked Gasly as Vettel went past him. Hamilton sets a new fastest lap.
Lap 39: Hamilton has DRS on Perez. He thinks about attacking on the inside but decides against it. Perez stays strong.
Lap 38: Bottas, a middling ninth at the restart, has dropped four places to 13th on a miserable afternoon for him. Raikkonen and Alonso have both coasted past him.
Lap 35: Perez and Verstappen weave their way to the restart, at which point Verstappen steams away. Vettel attacks the inside of Leclec, who has locked up, then picks off Gasly for fourth! Verstappen has established a 2sec leads on Perez.
Lap 34: Pit lane entry is open, and Alonso heads in for some softs. None of the leading cars elect to pit.
Lap 33: Stroll’s race is over – he gets a pat on the back from his dad Laurence and seems shaken up but fine. This is will probably be a long safety car period.
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Lap 32: “Woah, woah, woah, woah,” said Stroll. “Red flag, get me out of this place on the track. Got a puncture.” The medical car picks him up.
Lap 32: Big accident. Lance Stroll loses control on the start-finish straight and hits the wall, scattering debris all over the track. The safety car is deployed. Stroll seems OK.
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Lap 29: Still no joy for Bottas, who is stuck in 10th behind Lando Norris. “If you don’t overtake, we’re going to finish 10th or ninth,” he is told over the radio. Unarguable logic.
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Lap 27: It’s been plain sailing so far for Verstappen, who clocks up a fastest lap and leads by 6secs. Meanwhile Hamilton is losing more time back in third – he’s 2.5secs behind Perez.
Lap 26: Sainz is closing in on his countryman and mentor Fernando Alonso. He’s within a second of the man in 12th place and will surely attack him soon.
Lap 24: “Losing ground,” says Hamilton over his team radio – he has dropped back a bit from the two Red Bulls out in front.
Lap 24: Bottas comes off the track trying to overtake Norris but he’s back on quickly and the yellow flags go away. Just behind him, Sainz overtakes Giovinazzi for 13th.
Leaderboard
- 1 Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- 2 Sergio Perez, Red Bull +3.575
- 3 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes +5.025
- 4 Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +13.611
- 5 Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri+16.475
- 6 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari+19.735
- 7 Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin+21.310
- 8 Yuki Tsunodo, AlphaTauri+24.113
- 9 Lando Norris, McLaren+26.431
- 10 Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes +27.464
- 11 Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren +34.495
- 12 Fernando Alonso, Alpine +40.764
- 13 Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo +42.918
- 14 Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +43.396
- 15 Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo +50.271
- 16 George Russell, Williams+55.546
- 17 Nicholas Latifi, Williams +57.184
- 18 Mick Schumacher, Haas +61.036
- 19 Nikita Mazepin, Haas +81.683
Lap 21: “Hamilton is flying on the straights,” yelps Perez – but the Mexican has been pretty much flawless so far, keeping Hamilton in his DRS zone and unable to find a way past.
Lap 19: Not long, it turns out – he steers into the pits and emerges in a handy seventh, behind Leclerc and ahead of Tsunoda. Verstappen now leads by 3.5secs.
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Lap 17: As Hamilton sets a new fastest lap, Bottas is still stuck in 10th. Verstappen in second has opened up a 1.9sec advantage over team-mate Perez. Meanwhile Vettel is enjoying himself up in first place, but how long will his tyres last?
This from the well-travelled Gary Naylor:
If you're wondering whether Baku looks as amazing in real life, it does @A_Hess. It's not quite as extraordinary once you're off the Caspian shoreline and away from the Old City, but that's plenty to be honest.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) June 6, 2021
Lap 16: Perez means business here: he puts in a new fastest lap on his new tyres.
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Lap 15: So Sebastian Vettel now leads on the track, albeit without having pitted. Lance Stroll is another who has resisted pitting – he’s just behind Hamilton in fifth.
Lap 14: After a blistering start to the race, Perez pits from the lead – but it takes a lengthy 4.3secs, his good work undone. He comes out in second place ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen leading. Hamilton fixes his sights on Perez.
Lap 13: Hamilton might regret that, losing at least two seconds in a laboured pit stop: 4.6secs. Verstappen heads into the pits a lap later and Red Bull get it done in 1.9secs, and emerges ahead of his rival
Lap 12: Yellow flag in Sector 2. Sainz’s Ferrari has gone into the run-off area. And Hamilton swerves into the pits – Verstappen and Perez stay out.
Lap 11: Hamilton isn’t happy with his tyres. “A real struggle with the rear,” he tells his team – and his pace is dropping.
Lap 10: Lewis Hamilton is 1.2secs ahead of Verstappen, with Perez another 1.8secs back. And Leclerc, whose good qualifying work was undone so quickly, pits from fourth. Hard tyres go on.
Lap 9: Alonso responds to being overtaken by heading into the pits. So does Norris, with both swapping to the hard compound tyre.
Lap 8: Perez is up to third – Leclerc drops out of the podium places! – and Bottas is toiling back in 10th. “I think Hamilton is struggling a little bit with balance,” Verstappen is told.
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Lap 7: Verstappen bides his time, and then pounces, reeling in Leclerc to take second. Sonoda (sixth career race) steams past Alonso (317) going into turn one.
Lap 5: Hamilton is just under a second ahead of Leclerc, who is making it difficult for Verstappen to overtake him for second. But Hamilton can’t pull away to escape the DRS threat.
Lap 4: Ocon has retired with engine problems – “I lost power, lost power,” he wails. Giovinazzi has also been into the pits, swapping to the hard tyre
Lap 3: And Hamilton wastes no time in claiming the lead, using the slipstream to attack Leclerc and roar past him! Norris, meanwhile, has dropped to 13th after a bad start.
Lap 2: Giovinazzi has gained five places, Russell has pitted to swap to hard compound tyres.
And we're off!
The drivers screech down the 138 meters into turn one – a nerveless Leclerc holds his lead, Hamilton behind him, with Verstappen and then Perez who has jumped two places by the time he’s out of turn three, picking off Sainz and Gasly.
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Verstappen has been given permission to change his starting tyres – he is still on used softs but they are fresher than those of the two men ahead of him.
The drivers head off on the formation lap.
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The pre-race formalities today include a moment of silence in memory of Ojjeh and Max Mosley. Here’s our obituary of the latter:
And how about some pre-race reading? Our report from yesterday’s chaotic qualifying session:
How they stand:
The drivers
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3 Lando Norris (McLaren)
4 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
5 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
8 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
9 Pierre Gasly (Alphatauri)
10 Esteban Ocon (Renault)
The constructors
1 Red Bull 149
2 Mercedes 148
3 McLaren 80
4 Ferrari 78
5 Aston Martin 19
Lando Norris reckons his three-place grid penalty, for failing to pit immediately after a red flag, is unfair. It was reduced from the usual five places because Norris had “a very short time to react” it nonetheless moves him from sixth to ninth.
“[I’m] a bit gutted,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I did anything wrong. I felt [it] was the safest thing to do. It’s a bad decision or an unfair penalty.”
Sad news from the F1 world:
It is with deep sadness that McLaren Racing announces the death of Mansour Ojjeh, shareholder of McLaren since 1984.
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) June 6, 2021
Mr Ojjeh passed away peacefully this morning in Geneva, aged 68, surrounded by his family, to whom the team sends its most heartfelt condolences. pic.twitter.com/yAmp4apuYl
McLaren chief executive Zac Brown says: “Mansour has been etched into the heart and soul of this team for nearly 40 years and was intrinsic to its success. He was a true racer in every sense.”
So, after coming seventh and 11th in practice sessions on Friday, what exactly changed for Hamilton’s car in the lead-up to qualifying yesterday? Any suspicions of sandbagging were put to bed by Toto Wolff’s account of “a really thorough engineering programme and we were not shy of trying extreme things, which were as extreme as we [have ever] experienced”.
Hamilton elaborated: ““We did some changes overnight which didn’t rectify it. We tried a few different things in P3 and then tried something right at the end and it unlocked the set-up. We hadn’t been able to get the tyres to switch on like the other cars and the difference was all of sudden the tyres started working and we were back in the game. It’s the biggest jump we have been able to make between P3 and quali. It was literally night and day with the car. It’s a bit overwhelming and we are in for a much different race than we anticipated.”
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Preamble
There’s nothing like a bit of misery to spur you on to greatness. Charles Leclerc was heartbroken in his home town of Monaco last week, unable to join the grid after taking pole in qualifying – but has responded in Baku with another perfectly judged lap to claim his place at the front of today’s grid. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton, overtaken in the title race after a middling display in Monaco, has come out swinging in Azerbaijan. He left it late, though, enduring some disastrous practice sessions before screeching into second place in yesterday’s crash-strewn qualifying session, just ahead of Max Verstappen, the man who has overtaken him in the standings.
Last week was fast and furious. Or rather, Verstappen was fast and Mercedes were furious, with the Red Bull driver leapfrogging into the lead in both championships, and a squabble of the use of flexible wings having rumbled on all week. (Christian Horner on Toto Wolff: “If I was Toto with the front wing he’s got on his car, I’d keep my mouth shut.” Wolff on horner: “Christian is a bit of a windbag who wants to be on camera.”)
Hamilton’s seventh-place finish in Monaco coupled with the retirement of Valtteri Bottas mid-race meant Mercedes also surrendered the lead in the constructors’ championship by a single point to Red Bull, and they have a task on their hand to regain first place given that Bottas has only qualified in 10th here.
Verstappen, flawless in Monaco, now leads Hamilton by four points – he first time he has led the title race in seven years. Much of that was down to a substandard qualifying session from Hamilton, and history seemed to be repeating itself this week – he was 11th in second practice yesterday – only for the Briton to pull off a remarkable turnaround and roar into an impressive second. It bodes well for the entertainment factor today.
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