Sergio Perez wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of teammate Verstappen

Sergio Perez has won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, following a lucky Safety Car caused by Nyck de Vries, which led to the Mexican jumping his teammate Max Verstappen thanks to him stopping a lap later. Perez has now matched Verstappen’s number of wins this season and has cut the gap to six points in the standings. Charles Leclerc brought home his Ferrari to 3rd place.

Perez Powers to Wonderful Win

The two Red Bulls were once more dominant and pulled away easily at the front, both after the start and following the Safety Car. Max Verstappen was only caught out by pitting before the Safety Car was brought out thanks to Nyck de Vries stopping in Turn 6, while Perez clipped the wall out of Turn 15 on Lap 34, but the Mexican could hold onto his lead, performing better in the technical parts of the track.

After two promising qualifying sessions by Leclerc and finishing 2nd in the sprint, it still seemed like the Monegasque driver could have a shot at keeping up with the Red Bulls, but he was quickly overtaken and had to settle for the last podium spot, finishing with almost a gap of a 'free stop' for the Austrian team's pairing. Behind Leclerc, the rest of the top four teams’ drivers claimed the rest of the spots up to P8. Fernando Alonso finished P4 with a 24-second gap to the pair of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, and the additional point for the fastest lap was taken by George Russell.

In the midfield, due to the shortened DRS zone on the long straight, overtaking became increasingly hard, with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg forming a train on used hard tyres after the Safety Car. The last two points-paying positions went to Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda, as Ocon and Hulkenberg had to make a mandatory stop. Moreover, there were two retirements during the Grand Prix. Nyck de Vries finished another disappointing race by being the only one crashing out, while Guanyu Zhou retired due to a mechanical failure.

The Start

Charles Leclerc started on pole position, with the two Red Bulls eager to hunt him down as soon as possible. Everyone chose to start on the medium tyres, other than Nyck de Vries, and the two men starting from the pit lane, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.

The race got off to a more relaxed start than in yesterday’s sprint, only Alexander Albon and Oscar Piastri made a bit of a contact coming off of Turn 2, but at the front of the grid, Leclerc could hold off the two Red Bulls, Carlos Sainz shielded Hamilton from taking his place, and Fernando Alonso was unable to take advantage of that. Leclerc was not aggressive to hold onto P1 later on, as he was hunted down first by Verstappen on Lap 4, then by Perez on Lap 6.

Pit Stops before and under the Safety Car

The first stops of the day came earlier than expected, as many teams were struggling to keep their tyres warm on a track with a lot of shadows. Valtteri Bottas was the first to come in on Lap 7. On Lap 11, the Safety Car came out, due to Nyck de Vries breaking his front suspension and the Dutch driver had to retire the car in Turn 6.

At the front and in the points-paying positions, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris stopped on Lap 10, and Verstappen came into the pits in a lap later, so all of them got caught out. Meanwhile, on their pit entry, George Russell tried to overtake Lance Stroll and pulled up alongside the Canadian driver.

This restart provided a lot of changes at the front with Perez remaining on P1. Verstappen overtook Leclerc, Fernando Alonso jumped Sainz, Stroll reclaimed his position from Russell, while Hamilton first overtook a yet-to-pit Esteban Ocon, and a lap later fought off his teammate as well.