BAKU CITY, Azerbaijan — It was a clean sweep for Oracle Red Bull Racing, as Max Verstappen led the team to victory ahead of Sergio Perez in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Polesitter Charles Leclerc saw his race go up in smoke on lap 20, as his Ferrari would encounter a power unit issue on track while pacing the field. Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz also retired from the race on lap nine due to a hydraulic issue.
“It’s a disappointing outcome for us today,” Leclerc said. “At the beginning of the first stint on the mediums we weren’t particularly strong, but towards the end of it, we started catching Checo (Perez). During the Virtual Safety Car, we decided to take the opportunity and pit for hards, which was the right thing to do. It put us in a position where we could lead the race and what we had to focus on from then on was managing the tires to the end. We then had an issue with the power unit and had to retire. It’s time to go home and reset before Canada. We have to get on top of things and come back stronger there.”
Once Leclerc retired from the lead, it was smooth sailing for last year’s F-1 world champion. Verstappen would lead the rest of the way, gapping teammate Perez to the checkered flag by more than 20 seconds.
“Today we had incredible pace in the car, we could really look after the tires and we could chip away for the lead,” Verstappen said. “Checo did a good job at the start getting ahead of Charles (Leclerc), I got blocked in and couldn’t go anywhere. Once I was on the hard tires and in the lead and I could just manage it and could control the gap. It would have been good to have had a battle with Charles today but he had a DNF. To get a 1-2 for the team was really good, we’ve scored some good points today and made the gap bigger to Ferrari. There’s still a long way to go, it’s a long season so we need to keep pushing as a team.”
It was a stellar race for Mercedes, with George Russell securing the last podium spot in third, and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton driving from seventh on the grid to fourth.
“We were smashing the ground every single corner and every lap for 90 mins, it was pretty brutal – I’ll sleep well tonight,” Russell said. “It’s what we’ve got to deal with it at the moment, there’s not much we can do in the short-term. There’s lots of intelligent people, hugely talented engineers in the sport so I’m sure we’ll find a solution. We didn’t get the podium on pure pace today but we did it because the team have worked very hard to deliver a reliable car, we did a good job to be ahead of the midfield and obviously we picked up on Ferrari’s misfortune.”
After a physically demanding race on the Baku City Circuit, Hamilton described how treacherous it was inside the cockpit.
“I just got through that race on adrenaline, biting down on my teeth through the pain,” Hamilton said. “I can’t express the pain that you experience, especially on the straight here. And at the end, you’re just thinking of all the people relying on you for the points. But we’re in such a good position still! Third and fourth is a great result for the team. The team did a great job with the strategy and once we’ve fixed this bouncing we’re going to be right there in the race. We’re losing over a second for sure just with bouncing, or at least a second. I’ll be at the factory tomorrow, we’ve got have some good discussions and keep pushing.”
Sebastian Vettel earned his best result of the season, bringing his Aston Martin machine across the finish line in sixth.
The Haas F1 Team had mixed results on the day, with Mick Schumacher climbing six positions to finish 14th, while teammate Kevin Magnussen retired early from the race in 20th.