Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Pérez wins, Verstappen crashes, Gasly on the podium!

The start is given with professionalism. The drivers almost all maintain their positions and there are no mistakes at the dangerous turns. It’s in the game of slipstreaming that Hamilton manages to come out on top of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. He overheated his tires and can’t maintain the pace, allowing Verstappen to pass him shortly after. He goes into the pits as early as the 10th lap, having dropped to 6th place!

The game of strategies: advantage Red Bull

Hamilton comes in on the 14th lap to put on the hard tires. Taking advantage of a very long stop by the English driver (4.6 seconds), Verstappen manages to take the lead after his stop a few laps later. Pérez manages to do the same in a race that already seems to be offering a one-two finish to Red Bull, a first since Malaysia 2016!

Stroll’s crash on the 31st lap.

As the Grand Prix calms down, big crash for Lance Stroll with his Aston Martin, without any other drivers! It’s the left rear tire that punctured, causing the Canadian to lose control and hit the wall at 300km/h!

The incident causes the Safety Car to come in for several laps, while the marshals clear the car on a tow truck.

At the restart, Vettel takes advantage to gain a position on Gasly. Tires strategies are important here and most of the drivers have chosen to make only one stop. So, they have hard tires intended to last about thirty laps!

Verstappen crash when leading the race!

While Verstappen leads the race ahead of his teammate by a few seconds, his tire punctures in a straight line as was the case for Stroll a few minutes earlier! Tough break for the Dutchman who is furious with the tire! Pérez takes the lead as the safety car returns to the track again!

Latifi is informed to stay on track while the tow truck is on the circuit. The drivers were supposed to pass through the pit lane and not respecting this, he is given a drive-through penalty.

Red flag with 3 laps to go

The FIA then decides to interrupt the race seeing that most of the drivers are on hard tires and that Verstappen’s car cannot be cleared in time to restart the race.

All drivers then return in single file to the pit lane for about fifteen minutes. The FIA decides to restart the race with a standing start once everything is cleaned up on the track and the drivers have put on fresh tires.

A high-tension start for 2 epic laps

The pressure is high at the start. Hamilton, then second, tells the radio that the season is long and that he should not overdo it. However, the seven-time world champion makes a mistake at the first corner! Despite starting very well unlike Pérez, he is almost level with the Mexican but brakes too late with cold brakes and tires. He misses the apex and goes straight into the escape area! This benefits Gasly who takes 3rd place.

Perez and Vettel are too far to attack each other, but behind them, it’s the battle for the podium! The French driver is fighting with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Faster in the straight line, Leclerc manages to take the lead very early, but without DRS he cannot fight against a comeback from the AlphaTauri. Gasly maintains his position in a very clean duel that allows Norris to get back into the fight. Leclerc blocks him to avoid being overtaken.

Behind Alonso takes advantage of a very good start to come back to 6th place after starting 10th. Tsunoda, Sainz, Ricciardo, and Räikkönen complete the top 10!

Bottas does not score any points. Lagging behind throughout the race, his teammate’s mistake does not benefit him and he finishes 11th. As for Hamilton, he is unable to climb back up and finishes 15th. The first time Mercedes has not scored any points in a very long time.

The results of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021:

After Baku, discover the new drivers’ overall standings and the new constructors’ overall standings!