Two victories within 24 hours, the new Formula 1 weekend format in Baku makes it possible – and the Mexican Sergio Perez triumphant at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After winning the sprint, he first overtook his team-mate Max Verstappen in the main race on Sunday and then distanced him. Both Red Bull drivers now have two wins each this season, but world champion Verstappen is only six points ahead of his adjutant in the overall standings. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who started from pole position, finished third more than 23 seconds behind the winner. This shows the different worlds in the Formula 1 universe.
Red Bull Racing’s dual system is as successful as it is fragile, the egomaniac Verstappen and his colleague Perez don’t really like each other. “I’m back in the fight,” the Mexican cheers as he crosses the finish line. He’s the first Formula 1 driver ever to win twice in Baku. He can extend his tactics beyond the 51 laps at the Caspian Sea to the near future: “Max put on maximum pressure, but I held my ground.” The world champion was comforted by team boss Christian Horner over the pit radio: “Sergio was lucky during the safety car phase. But the season is still long, Max.” Horner knows that long-term winner Verstappen is pretty much the worst loser in the whole field. But later he was almost relaxed: “There was a bit of bad luck involved. You can’t be perfect every time, but you can always learn something.” A bittersweet realization.
After three laps at the front of the field, Charles Leclerc’s look in the exterior mirror became really hectic for the first time. The Ferrari driver saw the disaster coming in the form of an ever-growing yellow-blue-red dot. The pursuer Max Verstappen was hardly allowed to open his wing and use the DRS overtaking system when the Dutchman had already flown past. In lap four, the expected ranking was restored, Leclerc’s pole position, the first of a non-Red Bull driver this season, so only statistics. The Monegasque had already suspected that: “We’re still lacking a bit of speed in the race.” In qualifying, Ferrari had managed to overpower the superior team from Milton Keynes due to better tire use. But over the distance, the new set-up was no longer of much use to the Italian racing car, after six laps Sergio Perez also drove past Leclerc.
Old conditions, new questions. Will Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez actually be allowed to drive freely against each other, as team boss Christian Horner claimed? The only restriction that the Briton made for the internal duel for the lead: “They have to respect each other, because it’s important that we as a team get maximum points on this brutal track.” In 2018, the two had knocked each other out of the race at the same place. This type of conflict management will be in demand even more frequently this season. The streets of Baku, with their stop-and-go and ultra-long straights, are a good indicator that Adrian Newey’s masterful construction called RB 19 has lost none of its superiority even after a four-week break.
Sergio Perez, spurred on by his success in the 100-kilometre sprint on Saturday, once again sensed the morning air. He saw the Verstappen in front of him increasingly slipping and started to attack. Similar to Lewis Hamilton, whose tires had also started to grain early, the leader got fresh, hard rubber. Just as his compatriot Nyck de Vries put his Alpha Tauri in the gang and deployed the safety car. What bad luck for Verstappen. Suddenly all the other drivers could switch, and with less loss of time. Verstappen slipped back to third place, Hamilton even to tenth place. However, they were all close together again.
Third behind Perez and Leclerc, that was Verstappen also in the small Grand Prix, which had its own mini qualification for the first time on Saturday. Non-stop action after just an hour of training on Friday morning. The defending champion twice clashed hard with Mercedes driver George Russell, first on the narrow track, then even more clearly verbally, including the word “idiot”. Beyond the banter, the new format for general entertainment was certainly an asset, but the champion doesn’t like that kind of coincidence at all: “It’s not racing, it’s gambling like in the casino.” Artificial tension, he doesn’t like that at all as a full-blooded racing driver. At least it was gratifying that all the drivers immediately found the starting positions they had set out 45 hours earlier on Sunday afternoon.
Red Bull stalks each other – in a class of their own
Restarted on the 14th lap and immediately the attack came. Verstappen had better traction, adjusted the slipping Leclerc and immediately passed. The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz jr. Apparently had a problem getting the tires up to temperature and was conceded by Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was third three times in the first three races, continuing the streak spurred him on but Leclerc easily countered him in the end. The struggle with the various adversities of the technology turned a fast but somehow lame Grand Prix into a lively hustle and bustle, characterized by hope and fear right through the field. Most duels were characterized by the temperature method on the tires.
The Red Bull duo quickly pulled away, now stalking each other in a class of their own. At half-time it was more than twelve seconds that Leclerc was behind the two. There was still a long way to go, the streets of Baku, which will be used until at least 2026 after a contract extension, are always good for spontaneous dramas. Especially when everyone has settled in. Nico Hülkenberg, who had started from the pit lane with a new set-up after a completely botched vehicle set-up by his Haas racing team, touched the barriers on lap 27, but without any bad effects. The man from Emmerich was able to stay in tenth place for a long time, but shortly before the end he had to make his mandatory pit stop on the penultimate lap and slipped back to 17th place.
The 35th lap showed how great the pressure can be, even if you are in your own orbit. Perez’s lap time was a bit worse than the one before, the engineer asked what had happened, and Perez admitted sheepishly: “I hit the wall when I turned in.” Apparently not particularly strong, but it was a wake-up call on the way to his second win of the season. The pursuer Verstappen, who had already pushed back significantly, again scraped the barrier by a hair’s breadth. In the absence of any other incidents, the fourth World Championship round passed as the most inconspicuous so far this season. After all, for the excitement of the season, things went quite well.