Overall, I thought it was the best race of the season so far. Once again Charles Leclerc qualified on pole for Sunday's race, this time not crashing in the final minutes of qualifying. At the start of the race Leclerc took the lead at the start head of Current Formula 1 World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. At the end of lap 3, Hamilton passed Leclerc on the main straight to take the lead.
By lap 11, Hamilton pitted for tyres, got stuck in traffic in the pit-lane. The following lap, Verstappen made his stop, then a lap later Sergio Pérez pitted for tyres resulting Verstappen taking the lead with Pérez in second with Hamilton in third place. The race was set, until lap 47, when Verstappen cruelly picked up a left-rear puncture at the end of the start-finish straight and instantly retiring out of the race giving Pérez the lead, resulting a red flag on lap 49.
At the new restarted, Hamilton took the lead ahead of Pérez, until the first corner when Hamilton lock up and forcing him onto the escape road; Hamilton dropped to last as a result and Pérez retook the lead with two laps to go and stayed there till the end to give Sergio Pérez the race win in this seasons Azerbaijan Grand Prix and his first race win of the season.
While, Sebastian Vettel finished in second place in the Aston Martin, Vettel was fourteen tenths of a second behind Pérez at the end.
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly finished in third place in the AlphaTauri to complete the podium, Gasly was three seconds behind Pérez at the end of the fifty-one lap race.
Highlights of the race below, enjoy.
Rate the Teams and Drivers
Mercedes - 6
Lewis Hamilton - 7 (finished fifteenth)
Valtteri Bottas - 5 (finished twelfth)
Red Bull Racing - 9
Max Verstappen - 9 (DNF, Punture, fastest lap)
Sergio Pérez - 9 (race win)
McLaren - 7
Daniel Ricciardo - 6 (finished ninth)
Lando Norris - 8 (finished fifth)
Aston Martin - 9
Sebastian Vettel - 10 (finished second)
Lance Stroll - 8 (DNF, Punture)
Alpine - 7
Fernando Alonso - 8 (finished sixth)
Esteban Ocon - 6 (DNF, Turbocharger)
Ferrari - 7
Charles Leclerc - 8 (pole, finished fourth)
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 6 (finished eighth)
AlphaTauri - 9
Pierre Gasly - 10 (finished third)
Yuki Tsunoda - 9 (finsihed seventh)
Alfa Romeo - 6
Kimi Räikkönen - 7 (finished tenth)
Antonio Giovinazzi - 6 (finished eleventh)
Haas - 5
Mick Schumacher - 6 (finished thirteenth)
Nikita Mazepin - 5 (finished fourteenth)
Williams - 5
George Russell - 6 (DNF, Gearbox)
Nicholas Latifi - 4 (finished sixteenth)
Next stop Circuit Paul Ricard for the French Grand Prix in two weeks time.
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