2023-04-30 12:55:28
Sunny. Dry. Air +25С, route +42…41С
In 2023, a new sprint weekend format debuted in Baku, which at first glance seemed successful. There was only one training session left, but the traditional Grand Prix was saved – with qualification on Friday and a race on Sunday, and a sprint with a separate qualification was added on Saturday. The stage in Baku always turns out to be spectacular, and with the sprint it became even more fun.
Charles Leclerc won the main qualification and the Sprint Shootout, but Sergio Perez finished first in the sprint.
Logan Sargent did not participate in the sprint – Williams did not have time to restore the car following the accident, but everything was fixed before the race. Alpine violated the rules of the closed park in the work with Esteban Ocon’s car, so he started from the pit lane in both the sprint and Sunday’s race.
Haas F1 also violated the conditions of the closed park by changing the suspension settings on Nico Hulkenberg’s car – yesterday he complained regarding the rapid wear of the rear tires and copied the settings of Magnussen, who had no such problems. Niko also started from the pit lane.
The first row of the starting field was divided by Leclerc and Verstappen, Perez and Sainz started from the second, Hamilton and Alonso started from the third.
For the first time in the season, Pirelli brought the softest lineups to the stage – C3, C4 and C5 as Hard, Medium and Soft. De Vries, Okon and Hulkenberg started on Hard, the rest chose Medium.
At the start, Leclerc kept the lead. In the first six positions have been preserved. Magnussen damaged the front wing by crashing into Bottas from behind. Stroll and Russell won two positions each, Bottas lost five.
Top ten on lap 2: Leclerc – Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Hamilton – Alonso – Stroll – Norris – Russell – Tsunoda.
On lap 4, Verstappen overtook Leclerc to lead the race and immediately pulled away, preventing a counterattack.
On lap 6, Pérez overtook Leclerc to move up to second place.
Ocon and Hulkenberg were ahead of Gasly, who dropped to the last position.
On lap 7 Bottas changed tires, on lap 8 Albon, on lap 9 Tsunoda, Piastri and Sargent, on 10 lap Hamilton and Norris. on the 11th – Verstappen.
On lap 11, de Vries broke his front suspension in turn five, hitting a wall, and came to a stop in the safety pocket of turn six. The safety car drove off.
Magnussen, Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll, Russell and Zhou changed tyres. Before entering the pit lane, Russell overtook Stroll.
Top ten behind the safety car: Perez – Leclerc – Verstappen – Sainz – Alonso – Russell – Stroll – Ocon – Hulkenberg – Hamilton.
On the 14th lap, a restart was announced. Hamilton ahead of Hulkenberg, Verstappen – Leclerc, Alonso – Sainz.
Russell returned the position to Stroll to avoid a penalty.
On lap 15, Hamilton overtook Russell for seventh.
Top ten on lap 16: Perez – Verstappen – Leclerc – Alonso – Sainz – Stroll – Hamilton – Russell – Ocon – Hulkenberg.
Stroll hit the wall with his left front wheel and kept going.
On lap 17, Zhou overtook Magnussen for 16th place. On lap 19, Magnussen regained position.
Perez and Verstappen exchanged the best laps, but Sergio maintained a lead of regarding one and a half seconds for a long time, then it gradually began to increase.
On lap 20, Hamilton overtook Stroll for sixth.
On lap 24, Gasly made a pit stop.
On lap 33, Gasly overtook Bottas for 18th place.
Top ten on lap 35: Perez – Verstappen – Leclerc – Alonso – Sainz – Hamilton – Stroll – Russell – Ocon – Hulkenberg.
On lap 35, Bottas changed tires.
On the 37th lap, Zhou, at the command of the engineer, turned into the pits, where he retired.
On lap 43, Gasly overtook Sargent for 16th place.
On lap 46 Norris was ahead of Hulkenberg, on 47 lap Tsunoda, on 48 lap Piastri, on 49 lap Albon.
Russell made a braking error, running into a safety pocket at turn one, but kept going.
On lap 50, Russell made a pit stop, receiving a Soft kit to secure the best lap.
Hulkenberg and Okon rode almost the entire race on the Hard starter kit – the teams were waiting for a possible stop of the race with red flags, but this did not happen. On the 50th lap, Niko changed tires, on the 51st – Esteban, almost knocking down the fans who suddenly poured into the pit lane
Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with his second win of the season and 33 points per stage. Max Verstappen finished second – the third time this season Red Bull Racing had won the double. Charles Leclerc climbed to the third step of the podium.
Next week the fight will continue in Miami.
Race results
| Pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Pete |
| 1. C.Perez | Red Bull | 1 | ||
| 2. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | +2.137 | 1 | |
| 3. Sh. Leclair | Ferrari | +21.217 | 1 | |
| 4. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | +22.024 | 1 | |
| 5. K. Sainz | Ferrari | +45.491 | 1 | |
| 6. L. Hamilton | Mercedes | +46.145 | 1 | |
| 7. L. Stroll | Aston Martin | +51.617 | 1 | |
| 8. D. Russell | Mercedes | +74.240 | 2 | |
| 9. L. Norris | McLaren | +80.376 | 1 | |
| 10. Y. Tsunoda | Alpha Tauri | +83.862 | 1 | |
| 11. O. Piastri | McLaren | +86.501 | 1 | |
| 12. A. Albon | Williams | +88.623 | 1 | |
| 13. K. Magnussen | Haas | +89.729 | 1 | |
| 14. P. Gasli | Alpine | +91.332 | 2 | |
| 15. E. Okon | Alpine | +97.794 | 1 | |
| 16. L. Sargent | Williams | +100.943 | 1 | |
| 17. N. Hulkenberg | Haas | +1 round | 1 | |
| 18. V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | +1 round | 3 |
best lapTime: George Russell (Mercedes) – 1:43.320 (lap 51)
Reasons for leaving
| Pilot | Team | circles | Reason |
| N. de Vryz | Alpha Tauri | 10 | mechanical problems |
| G.Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 37 | mechanical problems |
Championship position : Individual
Championship position : Constructors’ Championship
| Team | Engine | Glasses | |
| = | 1. Oracle Red Bull Racing | Honda RBPT | 180 |
| = | 2. Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | Mercedes | 87 |
| = | 3. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | Mercedes | 76 |
| = | 4. Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari | 62 |
| = | 5. McLaren F1 Team | Mercedes | 14 |
| = | 6. BWT Alpine F1 Team | Renault | 8 |
| = | 7. MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | 7 |
| = | 8. Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake | Ferrari | 6 |
 |
9. Scuderia AlphaTauri | Honda RBPT | 2 |
 |
10. Williams Racing | Mercedes | 1 |
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#Azerbaijan #Grand #Prix #Perez #Verstappen #Leclerc
