Brawn praises Ferrari Baku tactics despite Mercedes win

Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn believes Ferrari out-played Mercedes on strategy during qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Italian team had opted to run the more durable but slower medium tyres in Q2 in an attempt to give both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc an advantage going into the race on Sunday.

Although Leclerc's subsequent crash derailed any hopes of Ferrari's bold call paying off, Brawn insisted the team had the right idea and added the Monegasque driver would learn from his crash.

In his post-race debrief, Brawn said he felt Ferrari had the right strategy by trying to get Vettel and Leclerc through to Q3 on the medium tyres.

“The decision to try to qualify in Q2 on the medium tyre was the right one in my opinion, because on the softs, Mercedes had shown they had a better race pace on Friday afternoon,” said Brawn.