Analysis | Verstappen shows muscle with race pace vs. Perez

Max Verstappen showed in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that there is no measure of him in the race. Sergio Perez was in the lead from the first corner, but the lap times at the start of the race already gave away what was to come. GPblog dived into the data from the last GP.

Perez's momentum

After qualifying ahead of Verstappen in Monaco and winning the race on the streets of Monte Carlo, Perez was again ahead of Verstappen in qualifying in Baku. The Mexican was faster over one lap, but in the race it became apparent that the setup of the second Red Bull driver was not ideal. His tires were wearing out far too quickly.

It is understandable that Perez was disappointed that his team did not bring him in during the first Virtual Safety Car. Perez started the race very well. He grabbed Charles Leclerc at the start and immediately drove up to 2.5 seconds away from Leclerc and Verstappen. After that, however, Perez's pace stagnated.

Starting on lap four, Verstappen was faster almost every lap of the race. From lap four through lap nine, Verstappen is still stuck behind Leclerc, but that doesn't stop him from being faster than his teammate for four out of five laps. The biggest blow, however, is Verstappen's as Leclerc goes in and Perez stays out.

No fighting

From lap eleven (just after the Virtual Safety Car) to lap fourteen (at the end of this lap Verstappen passes his teammate), Verstappen is steadily catching up to his teammate. It starts with three tenths on lap eleven, then one tenth on lap twelve, another three tenths on lap thirteen and then one second on lap fourteen. In doing so, Verstappen is helped by the DRS on Perez on that last lap though.

Once passed, Perez falls all the way back. In two laps he loses over four seconds compared to Verstappen. In the pit stop Perez is then not helped by his team with a pit stop of 5.7 seconds. This puts him back on track with a deficit of 26.9 seconds to Verstappen. In his out-lap, the Mexican regains four tenths of that.

One lap later, Verstappen does come in. His pit stop is not fast either, but with 3.5 seconds Verstappen gains more than two seconds without doing anything himself. That's not bad, because Perez has already closed 1.6 seconds to his teammate in the first two sectors. When Verstappen comes out, however, the gap is four seconds.

Verstappen has the gap

Since neither driver will go in for a pit stop again, the race is basically over here. Perez lost the most time by not going in earlier. He had a setup that simply allowed his tires to suffer more wear and tear. A two-stop would have been more advantageous for the Mexican. Indeed, on the same strategy, Verstappen proved much better on the tires.

From lap twenty until the final lap, there are only two laps in which Perez is faster. On lap 24 he gains 0.016s and on lap 41 Perez gains 0.291s. This is in stark contrast to the other 27 laps (not counting laps during VSC) in which Verstappen is faster. On the hard tire, Verstappen eventually finishes 20.8 seconds ahead of his teammate. The reigning world champion thus ran sixteen seconds away from his teammate in the second stint.

In that respect, Verstappen had his say on the track. While Perez was also not helped by a different strategy, he can hardly say he had the pace to beat Verstappen. In Monaco, a strategy focused on Saturday works, but in Baku you really have to look a little further ahead. Verstappen appears to be just a little better at that at the moment, putting things in order within the team.