The start of the race was Sergio Pérez's, a piece of the middle was in Charles Leclerc's hands, but the winner of the Azerbaijan GP was Max Verstappen
On a hot afternoon in Baku local time this Sunday (12), Formula 1 took to the track to hold the 2022 Azerbaijan GP. The eighth race of the 2022 season promised a game of strategy and overtaking after the first few laps, but ended up being one of Ferrari's saddest tango. Good, again, for Red Bull, which saw its rival not even come close to half the race distance and won without any threat. Better for Max Verstappen, who wins again after the Monaco setback.
It was more than just a win: a reckoning. Verstappen had the 2021 race in his hands in Baku when, in dramatic fashion, he saw his tire blow out with a few laps to go and abandoned. The scene of Verstappen kicking the flat tire, still on the track and all dressed up, helmet and all, is emblematic. The reigning champion warned that he had unfinished business with the city. Now, he no longer does.
Sergio Pérez finished second, but it was he who began to change the fate of the race when he started perfectly and took the lead in the first corner. It was the best of all worlds: Pérez in front of a Charles Leclerc who, slightly slower, was holding off Verstappen. Then Ferrari began their day of collective disgrace. With eight laps to go, Carlos Sainz had electronic problems and stopped the car on the track. End of race for him.
But there was Leclerc. The other side of the garage acted quickly under virtual safety-car conditions and called the Monegasque to change tires and put on a set of hard ones, something Red Bull didn't do, causing the two to remain on already worn medium tires. Leclerc returned to the track taking advantage and with tactical control of the race. It was Red Bull, then, who acted: they ordered Pérez to give way to Verstappen, since the Dutchman was much faster and was stuck behind the Mexican. Maybe it sounds like a creeping team game, but it was absolutely necessary to lessen the damage caused by Leclerc's free pit-stop.
After Verstappen and Perez stopped in the pits, Leclerc regained the lead and had the race in his hands. Until he didn't. On the 21st of 51 laps, the Ferrari engine exploded. Again. Leclerc was out of the race and Red Bull had one more race in its hands to not waste.
They didn't. With the lead already, Verstappen disappeared from the map in such a way that Red Bull had to slow down twice to avoid the risk of repeating last year. Victory for the championship leader, the fifth of 2022. Pérez and George Russell closed the podium.
Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, and Esteban Ocon completed the top-10. Pérez set the best lap of the race.
Formula One returns next week, June 17-19, in Montreal with the Canadian Grand Prix.
Check out the Azerbaijan GP:
A very hot day in the capital of Azerbaijan. With the ambient temperature hitting 30°C, the asphalt on the track was approaching 50°C by the time of the start at 4pm local time [8am GMT-3]. The starting grid was the same exactly as constructed in Saturday's qualifying. Charles Leclerc started from pole position and had the challenge of holding off Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen, his main rivals in the fight for the title.
Carlos Sainz's goal was to show that he was alive to be part of this duel, but he was fourth. Behind, George Russell was racing to maintain his 100% top-5 finish for the season, while Pierre Gasly was sixth and had the challenge of holding off Lewis Hamilton. Yuki Tsunoda was eighth, with veterans Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in tow. McLaren positioned their two cars in the sequence.
And the start was a portrait of the fabulous moment that Pérez is experiencing. The Mexican's reaction time was frighteningly positive, he put the car on the inside on the long straight and was the owner of that line when it was time to go around the first corner. Leclerc tried to react, but there was no way to block Checo, who took the lead. Verstappen tried to come alongside, but couldn't get past.
The only other change of position in the top ten at the start was Vettel taking eighth place from Tsunoda. Meanwhile, the first punishment of the race was already underway: Nicholas Latifi was given a 10s stop&go for a mechanic pushing his car 15s before the start signal for the warm-up lap. A rare and somewhat bizarre punishment.
Perez was opening a lead to Leclerc at the front and managed to put 2s after the first few laps, important as Verstappen was still behind Charles. Hamilton was rounding Gasly a bit behind, still not effective, and the one who would overtake back was Kevin Magnussen, pushing Valtteri Bottas back by taking 15th place. A question also in McLaren, because Daniel Ricciardo was sticking to the rear of Lando Norris and warned that "if that's his best pace, I have more".
But the race found its first boulder in the way on lap eight. And it was a huge boulder: Sainz came to a stop in the escape area of turn four and warned that something had failed. In fact, the image of the moment left a strange noise in the red car. VCS triggered and drama for the Spaniard, who dropped out of the race once again this year. Now, according to Ferrari, due to an electronic defect.
Ferrari took advantage of the moment of misfortune with the other car. Leclerc punctured both Red Bulls and went into the pits to put hard tires in place of the medium ones he had started with. Pérez and Verstappen stayed on track with the medium tires. Astonished, the Dutchman questioned the team. "Did he get a free pit-stop?". The answer was yes. Leclerc dropped to third, but was left with an accomplished stop and only 13s behind Pérez.
It wasn't just him. Russell, Gasly, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Vettel, Guanyu Zhou, Magnussen, and Alexander Albon also stopped to put on hard tires. Latifi, because of the punishment, had swapped one set of mediums for others, while Mick Schumacher went the other way and swapped hard for medium.
The race was back to watching Leclerc, who regained some control. Quickly, the gap of 13s fell to 12s, 11s and 10s. Red Bull needed to act. Verstappen was faster on the track and was beginning to be contained behind Perez. Then the order: it's to switch. It is normal to have questions about team play, but in this case it was a decision that needed to be made without looking back. If Leclerc continued to approach, victory would slip out of his hands.
Just before Verstappen's overtake, Vettel went straight through turn three after almost hitting the back of Tsunoda. He managed to react quickly and was able to avoid contact, but lost time.
Perez was called out at the end of the 16th of 51 laps to change from medium tires to a set of hard ones. The pit-stop was slow and caused the Mexican to be returned to the race with Russell sticking to the rear to trouble with heated tires. Leclerc, meanwhile, kept closing in on Verstappen: he was within 7s5.
Gasly had managed to leave Ocon behind and forced Hamilton to waste time on the Alpine car before he was back to bother him. It took a while, but Lewis also overtook and got back to the rear of Pierre.
The next stop for one of the frontrunners was Verstappen, at the end of lap 18. A clean and fast pit-stop gave Leclerc the lead of the race by 13s.
Leclerc was now in control of the race as the uncoordinated window of pit-stops moved further back in the pack, but it would not last long. When everything seemed to be dominated by Ferrari, the engine disappointed again. The driver of the #16 car pointed in the picture with smoke coming out of the rear and a desperate tone on the radio warning that something was failing. There was nothing more to be done. For the third time in the last three races, a Ferrari problem or error knocked Leclerc out of the lead of a race he had under control.
From that point on, the tension faded. There was no longer a battle for victory, because Verstappen was ahead of Perez, and Russell, who was third, had no car to trouble the Rubro-taurins.
A very different moment for the two Asian drivers in the race. While Tsunoda went to the inside and did a beautiful overtake on Ocon, Zhou, who was having a positive weekend in the season, had an engine problem and had to stop. Three abandonments, all of them from cars pushed by Ferrari. "Are you kidding? Not again!" the rookie lamented over the Alfa Romeo radio.
The next to pull up behind Ocon was Vettel, who almost crashed at the first attempt, but then passed. The Alpine had the upper hand when Alonso attacked Magnussen for what was then tenth place. The overtaking continued: Hamilton repeated what Gasly had done and passed Ricciardo. The seven-times champion took over the Mercedes radio to say that his back was hurting from all the clicking.
Verstappen continued to build more and more lead, until his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, ordered him to slow down a bit. The reason? "You know well how it is to lead a race around here," he said, remembering last year with tire blowouts. Red Bull suggested cruising for #1.
Shortly after being told to get ahead and attack Ocon, Magnussen was the next to have problems. The impression was also of engine difficulties and, quite important detail, the fourth abandonment of the race was of the fourth driver pushed by the Ferrari engine in trouble. Dramatic situation of the Italian power unit.
The new VSC gave Red Bull a chance to recall Verstappen and Pérez for a new tire change, just as Mercedes did with Russell and Hamilton. AlphaTauri kept its drivers on track and managed to get Yuki past Lewis, but Hamilton acted quickly and immediately regained fifth place. At that point, with 35 laps left, Verstappen had Perez, Russell, Gasly, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Vettel, Alonso, Ricciardo and Norris in the top-10.
Tsunoda had more to worry about: there was a front wing break. When he opened the wing on the straights, only a piece would move. The FIA sent out the black and orange flag message to go into the pit-lane to fix it. It looked like it was something almost irreparable and would end the Japanese race, but AlphaTauri decided to try to build a helicopter out of chewing gum and two pencils.
Not exactly that, but similar. With a small saw and some duct tape, he tampered with the wing and sent Yuki to the track even though the wing was still broken. He warned on the radio for the driver not to go anywhere near the moving wing drive from then until the end of the race.
Red Bull was again warning Verstappen, now 17s ahead of Perez, to slow down and avoid the moveable wing. Take the car home, that's right.
Finally, Hamilton was able to reach and attack Gasly on lap 43. At last, Mercedes occupied positions three and four, while Gasly was fifth. Ricciardo was closing in on Alonso for seventh place, but he couldn't attack, so McLaren had Norris, who was coming up behind, take a run and rush his teammate. McLaren sent the message: they were going to send Norris through if Ricciardo couldn't attack Alonso.
Latifi was more than 35s in last place and even then he received 5s of punishment for ignoring blue flags. It was hard to know at what point. Even so, the Canadian gained a position! It was Lance Stroll's, who was ordered to take his car to the pits and abandon it because of "strange oscillations" in the green car.
And that was it. Verstappen wins and podium finishes for Pérez and Russell, while Hamilton, Gasly, Vettel, Alonso, Ricciardo, Norris, and Ocon score.
F1 2022, Azerbaijan GP, Baku, final result: