Brawn foresees hellish title fight after thunderous final round in Baku

Formula 1 has the well-known saying: anything can happen in F1, and usually it does. This was no different at the Baku street circuit last weekend. Baku has often been the scene of edge-of-your-seat races in recent seasons, and yesterday the circuit in Azerbaijan provided another thrill.

Pragmatic

This is also what Ross Brawn, managing director of F1, saw. According to him, it was a rather slow, uneventful race where everything seemed pretty much decided. In conversation with F1.com he says: "Max drove a very good race and deserved the win. And with Lewis' mistake at the end, it means the damage to his championship hopes wasn't as great as it could have been. That perhaps explains why, after his initial frustration in the heat of the moment, he was later very pragmatic about what happened."

Hamilton

Where the Dutchman deserved the victory according to Brawn, Hamilton did not do as bad as many people think: "It was a character test for Lewis this weekend. Overall he came through it very well. It was a good step to take a car that looked so bad on Friday and make it better on Saturday. It wasn't the fastest car, but he knew he could do something with it. I don't know what happened on the restart. He said it was a problem with the switch. Obviously the rear brakes were very hot."

Championship

The Briton believes the championship is still wide open. Red Bull Racing are a serious contender for the title: "Their start is an encouraging sign. If they can keep this momentum going and continue to battle it out with Mercedes, we have quite a battle ahead of us."