Lewis Hamilton has won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to take the lead of the championship in what turned out to be a thrilling finale to the Grand Prix. His championship rival Sebastian Vettel looked set to claim a third win of the season for most of the race but a final safety car caused by the two Red Bulls clashing threw the race wide open.
The race had been a somewhat simple affair after the first safety car caused by a string of first lap collisions with Vettel leading away from pole and seemingly having the race in hand after fending off a potential undercut from Lewis Hamilton but the late race drama changed the situation entirely and handed a first victory of the season to Mercedes.
Other beneficiaries of the chaos were Sergio Perez who stole his first podium since this race two years ago, Charles Leclerc who drove a very mature race to a brilliant sixth place and his first F1 points and sauber's best result since the 2015 Russian Grand Prix, and Brendon Hartley who also scored his first F1 points in 10th place.
Report
Vettel managed to get away well from pole position with most cars behind him holding position but a clash between Kimi Raikkonen and Esteban Ocon ended the race for the Frenchman and forced the Finn to pit for a new front wing whilst also triggering a safety car.
On the restart Verstappen managed to get past his teammate Ricciardo, dragging the Renault of Carlos Sainz with him but problems soon struck for Red Bull with both Renaults performing synchronised passes on both Red Bulls at one point, with Verstappen complaining of a loss of power and a struggle to get his tyres up to temperature.
The Renault surge didn't last for long though with Hulkenberg making a mistake and crashing out and Sainz pitting early on his worn Ultra soft tyres leaving the path clear for the two Red Bulls to battle it out, although they ultimately didn't have the pace to challenge the three ahead and were not under any real threat from the cars behind.
As the race wore on it looked like Vettel had the situation under control out front managing the gap to Hamilton, and it only became more safe once Hamilton made a mistake going into turn 1, which led to the Brit pitting and Vettel following him in soon after, leaving Bottas in the lead momentarily but still due a pit stop.
Behind the leaders the Red Bull's were still battling late into the race with Ricciardo passing Verstappen but the Dutchman regained the position during the pit stop phase, leading to an angry Ricciardo attempting to retake fourth position from his teammate, but an ill judged dive down the inside of a weaving Verstappen led to both cars crashing out and an inquest surely to come from within the Milton Keynes team.
The crash led to a safety car and it looked to have given the win to Valtteri Bottas, as all of the top four, and the majority of the field, pitted for fresh tyres, meaning the Finn effectively had a free pitstop on the rest of the field and giving him an immediate reprieve from last time out in China when the safety car cost him the victory.
During the safety car period Romain Grosjean, who had managed to climb his way through the field and into the points made an error whilst under the safety car and unfortunately crashing out from what would have been his first points of the season and yet more points lost for the luckless Haas team this season.
Upon the safety car restart Vettel looking for redemption after unluckily losing the lead attempted an ambitious move for the lead on Bottas, but locked up losing positions to Hamilton and Raikkonen and going from a potential win down to fourth position.
Then on the next lap Vettel on flat spotted tyres lost a place to Sergio Perez who had come through the field after being one of the drivers to have stopped early on ultra soft tyres to a brilliant fourth position which soon turned out to be an unlikely podium with Bottas picking up a puncture with only a couple of laps left to heartbreakingly end his race.
His teammate Hamilton was the main beneficiary though, as he picked up his first victory since USA last year to put him at the head of the championship table and picking up a lucky win to atone for losing the Australian Grand Prix earlier this season. The Brit will also have momentum behind him as F1 heads to traditional start of the European season in Spain and the battle for the championship really begins to heat up.
Sam Gale
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
My issue is that Max moved twice, which is against current regulations.