Sergio Perez recorded his first Red Bull win in a chaotic Azerbaijan GP. Let's analyse the major talking points from the race.
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The Azerbaijan GP of 2021 will go down in the history books as one of the most bonkers Formula 1 races of recent times. It’s rare to say an F1 race had it all but this one had it all – drama at the front end, plenty of slugging in the midfield and a fresh looking podium at the end of the race. More interestingly, the race goes down as a missed opportunity for both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The championship leaders ended the race having collected a grand total of zero points between them. This is despite both, at one point, being in a position of winning the race.
Let’s analyse the major talking points from what was a memorable Azerbaijan GP.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were in introspective moods after the race. For the Red Bull driver, it was a cruel case of a win being snatched away from him when he’d done nothing wrong. For Hamilton, a rare misjudgement led to him collecting no points when 25 were there for the taking.
Verstappen was comfortably leading with a few laps left when his left rear tyre burst and he crashed into the wall. That he was unhurt is testament to how safe modern F1 cars are. Yet the frustration was evident as he kicked the punctured tyre after exiting the cockpit.
It was worse, however, for Hamilton. Verstappen’s accident prompted the race to be red flagged. On the restart, Hamilton was second behind eventual race winner Sergio Perez. Hamilton gained ground but left the breaking till too late, running beyond track limits. He was on course to collect 18 points without that move. With it, he collected none.
This season has largely seen three drivers – Hamilton, Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas – fight for podiums. Yes, McLaren’s Lando Norris has also taken two podiums but those came at least partly due to one of Red Bull or Mercedes having off days.
The same was the case here – Verstappen and Hamilton were out, and Bottas was slugging it out low in the field. But seeing Perez, Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel on the podium was a welcome change of pace for fans.
‘Checo’, as Perez is fondly known, has had a mixed start to his Red Bull career and the win was a welcome one for him. Gasly is a better driver than some believe, and proved it yet again by getting the AlphaTauri on the podium. And what even is there to say about Vettel?
The four-time world champion too has suffered mixed fortunes since his move to Aston Martin. But he was in fine form here, following up his P5 in Monaco with a podium at Baku. All signs point to there being plenty of fight left in the old dog. Don’t write him off just yet.
The Ferrari revival at Monaco was celebrated among fans of the sport, and by the tifosi. Yet there were doubts over whether or not they could sustain that run. As it turns out, those doubts were not without merit.
Charles Leclerc took his second pole position on the trot – again, it must be said with an assist from the red flag. But come race day and he was comfortably outpaced by Hamilton, Verstappen, Perez and even former teammate Vettel. That he managed a fourth-place finish owed greatly to Hamilton and Verstappen having poor days.
His teammate Carlos Sainz had it even worse, spending most of the race slugging it out outside the top 10 before finishing eighth. For Ferrari this year, the battle seems to be with McLaren over who is the best of the rest. Any talk of gaining more race wins seems premature at best.
Going into the race, most expected teams to utilise a one-stop strategy by switching to the hard compound Pirelli tyres early on. Indeed, that is what happened and it was some excellent pit work from Red Bull that saw Verstappen take the lead from Hamilton. But two accidents caused due to tyre punctures is not a good look.
Before Verstappen’s crash, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll suffered from a similar puncture to a rear tyre that ended his race. The Pirellis have largely held up this season but will undoubtedly face some scrutiny in the coming days.
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