Overall, I thought it was the best race of the season so far and one of the best Grand Prix I have seen for a while. Lewis Hamilton on pole and Valtteri Bottas on the front row for Sunday's race, you would have thought it will be another one-two Mercedes finish. Until the second corner of the first lap in the race when Bottas collided with Kimi Räikkönen, forcing Bottas to pit with broken nose and a front right puncture, forcing Bottas a lap behind Hamilton who was leading the race ahead of both Ferrari drivers.
Until lap 17, when the Safety Car was deployed as some debris flies from Raikkonen's Ferrari. Then on lap 20.
Just before the Safety Car pitted in, Hamilton who was tempting to break way from Sebastian Vettel in second place, did unnecessary break test which resulted Vettel collided with Hamilton under the Safety Car which included a swipe at the Mercedes on the exit of the corner, and was later handed a ten-second stop-go penalty for dangerous driving. The collision damaged Vettel's front wing and Hamilton's rear diffuser.
In my opinion it was not a racing incident, a stupid move from Hamilton doing unnecessary break test on the drivers behind him (who himself should have been penalty, but never did) and even more stupid move from Vettel swiping at Hamilton; clumsy moves from two former Formula 1 World Champions who should know better.
Racing resumed on lap 21, only for another safety car involving both Force India drivers' Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez collided with each other while Kimi Räikkönen was a passenger with the accident, which left more debris on the track only to be red-flagged on lap 22 so that marshals could clear more debris.
After the red-flag has ended and the race restarted, Hamilton led at the restart, until Lap 31 when Hamilton had to pit for a new headrest, then at lap 33 Vettel had to serve his stop-go penalty. Means, Daniel Ricciardo who started from tenth after a crash in qualifying now leads. He stayed there till the end to give Daniel Ricciardo the race win in this seasons Azerbaijan Grand Prix and his first race win of the season.
While, Valtteri Bottas who was last and lapped at the end of the first lap of the race, finished in second place in Mercedes, pipping Lance Stroll for second at the last lap of the race by one tenth of a second! Bottas was four seconds behind Ricciardo at the end.
Meanwhile, Lance Stroll finished in third place in the Williams to complete the podium and becoming the youngest rookie to ever score a Formula One podium and becoming the first Canadian to take a podium since Jacques Villeneuve at the 2001 German Grand Prix, Stroll was four seconds behind Ricciardo at the end of the fifty-one lap race.
Highlights of the race below, enjoy.
Rate the Teams and Drivers
Mercedes - 7
Lewis Hamilton - 6 (pole, finished fifth)
Valtteri Bottas - 8 (finished second)
Red Bull Racing - 8
Daniel Ricciardo - 9 (race win)
Max Verstappen - 7 (DNF, Oil pressure)
Ferrari - 6
Sebastian Vettel - 6 (finished fourth and fastest lap)
Kimi Räikkönen - 7 (DNF, Water pressure)
Force India - 7
Sergio Pérez - 8 (DNF, Seat)
Esteban Ocon - 7 (finished sixth)
Williams - 8
Felipe Massa - 8 (DNF, Suspension)
Lance Stroll - 10 (finished third)
McLaren - 6
Fernando Alonso - 8 (finished ninth)
Stoffel Vandoorne - 5 (finished twelfth)
Toro Rosso - 6
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 6 (finished eighth)
Daniil Kvyat - 6 (DNF, Battery)
Haas - 5
Romain Grosjean - 4 (finished thirteenth, lap down)
Kevin Magnussen - 7 (finished seventh)
Renault - 5
Nico Hülkenberg - 5 (DNF, Accident)
Jolyon Palmer - 5 (DNF, Power unit)
Sauber - 7
Marcus Ericsson - 6 (finished eleventh)
Pascal Wehrlein - 8 (finished tenth)
Next stop Red Bull Ring in two weeks time for the Austrian Grand Prix.
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