Azerbaijan Highlights | Crashes, thrills and surprising podiums

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix regularly provides a good dose of thrills. The race has only been run four times so far, but there have been a good number of memorable moments on the street circuit in Baku. Ahead of the fifth Azerbaijan Grand Prix, GPblog highlights a few of them.

2021: Sensational final phase

Verstappen seemed to be driving with two fingers in his nose to victory, but with only five laps to go fate strikes. The Dutchman suffered a tyre blowout on the straight and crashed into the wall. A red flag and restart followed with Sergio Perez in front of Lewis Hamilton. The best start is for Hamilton who entered the first corner first, but the Mercedes driver brakes and throws his race and important World Championship points in the trash. Perez won his first race for Red Bull and the rest of the podium is also worth mentioning. Sebastian Vettel managed to give Aston Martin its first podium with his second place and Pierre Gasly only just manages to keep Charles Leclerc behind him for third.

2018: The crash between Verstappen and Ricciardo

For laps, teammates Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo battled hard for fourth place until things went wrong on the 40th lap. Ricciardo crashed into the back of the Dutchman, ending the race for both drivers. In retrospect, this was probably the final push the Australian needed to leave Red Bull Racing for Renault, perhaps the worst decision of his Formula One career.

2017 and 2021: The ups and downs of Stroll

Lance Stroll has a love-hate relationship with Baku. During the first edition of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the then Williams driver managed to drive his way to a surprising podium finish. For a moment it looked like he would be second, but Valtteri Bottas managed to pip the Canadian to third place just before the finish. Four years later, Stroll seemws to be on his way to another excellent result when he lied fourth in the Aston Martin. However, on lap 31 Stroll suffered a blowout resulting in a hard crash.

2017: The short fuse of Vettel

Although the 2017 edition of the Grand Prix was packed with action anyway, the moment between Vettel and Hamilton during a safety car on the nineteenth lap was the most exciting. Vettel hit the rear of Hamilton's Mercedes and complained of a break test from the British driver. The German was furious and deliberately rammed his Ferrari full into the side of Hamilton's Mercedes. Vettel received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for it, but still managed to finish the race ahead of Hamilton in fourth place.