Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Track guide

The start/finish line is at the end of the main straight of the track, which has seen drivers hit speeds of 360 km/h making it the fastest street circuit. Heading down into turn one the drivers go onto a mini straight before turn two, the first DRS straight of the race, before heading into sector two.

Sector two is the more technical part of the race, with various quick turns and chicanes. Turns three and four set up for the fast chicane of turns five and six before the right turn seven leads to one of the tightest parts of a Formula 1 track throughout the year.

Turns eight, nine, ten and eleven are two chicanes after each other, with the entry being only just over a cars width into turn eight. Lewis Hamilton crashed his car into turn ten during qualifying for the 2016 European Grand Prix, causing him to start tenth for the race.

Turn twelve leads to the high-speed lefts of thirteen and fourteen, before the hard-braking section of turn fifteen, when Daniel Ricciardo crashed his Red Bull in FP3 in 2016.

After turn sixteen it’s near flat-out through turn seventeen and the chicane of eighteen/nineteen and through the second DRS zone until the end of the lap. This part of the track usually shows which cars have the best engine power as it’s full throttle to obtain the maximum speed.

Race History

Even though Baku City Circuit has only hosted a few Grand Prix the past few years they have certainly been and entertaining watch.

2016 as the European Grand Prix saw Nico Rosberg comfortably win ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez taking the last spot on the podium. Hamilton managed to claw his way back to fifth position after starting tenth due to crashing out in qualifying.

In 2017 it was a much more entertaining spectacle as there was a huge point of controversy between Hamilton and Vettel during the race.

Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen collided with each other at turn three on the first lap, giving Bottas a puncture and putting him a lap behind the rest of the field.

During the second safety car period Vettel hit the back of Hamilton but claimed he ‘brake tested him’ causing the collision. Vettel, moments later, again collided with Hamilton after driving up alongside him and hitting the side of the Mercedes.

The Force Indias of Perez and Esteban Ocon collided after the restart, leading the race being red-flagged for a short period to clear the debris. Because of the collisions Vettel served a 10-second stop go penalty whilst Hamilton had to pit to have his headrest sorted.

Ricciardo ultimately won the race with Bottas in second, after un-lapping himself and catching Lance stroll on the line.

Chaos ensued at the beginning of the race on 2018 with collisions between Raikkonen and Ocon, causing the Frenchman to retire from the race. Sergey Sirotkin made contact with Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg, leading to him stopping on-track at turn three.

The race resumed after the safety car and many laps later a collision between the two Red Bulls led to another. Max Verstappen made a late defensive move on his teammate into turn one causing him to run into the back of his car and retire them both.

Bottas, in the lead after the restart had to retire after suffering a puncture, handed the lead and win to Hamilton, followed by Raikkonen and Perez.

When is the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix?

The race weekend in Baku kicks off Friday April 26th, with Free Practice 1 starting at 1pm local time (10am BST, 5am EST). FP2 starts that afternoon at 5pm (2pm BST, 9am EST). On Saturday, FP3 starts at 2pm local time (11am BST, 6am EST), and qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix takes place at 5pm on Saturday (2pm BST, 8am EST).

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix will start at 4.10pm local time on Sunday April 28th (1.10pm BST, 8.10am EST).