Azerbaijan GP red flagged after multiple incidents

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The Azerbaijan Grand Prix never looked like it was likely to be plain sailing, and in the first 22 laps there was indeed plenty of action. After two rapid-fire safety cars, the race was red-flagged on lap 22 for debris from multiple incidents.

The initial safety car was for Daniil Kvyat's car stopping on track and needing to be retrieved. The first attempt to get the race underway was thwarted when debris dropped from Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari which had been damaged in a first lap clash with Valtteri Bottas.

There was trouble even before the second restart after race leaders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel clashed on the way to the restart line. Vettel felt that Hamilton had braked tested him, and banged wheels with the Mercedes in objection.

Once the green flag came out, there was trouble when Force India team mates Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez collided going through a left hander. Ocon suffered a puncture, while Perez left with left front suspension damage.

Hamilton beats Bottas to pole position in Baku

The final straw was Raikkonen's already-damaged Ferrari suffering right rear tyre blow-out after running across debris. Raikkonen drove the car back to pit lane but the tyre delaminated on the way, shredding the car's bodywork and leaving a trail of debris behind him.

That forced race control to red flag the session to allow the track to be fully cleaned up before the race resumed. Cars were told to line up in pit lane awaiting the restart. The Grand Prix resumed after a stoppage of around 20 minutes.

Initially thought to be out of the race, the red flag enabled Force India to repair Perez' car. Ferrari similarly patched together Raikkonen's car. owever, race stewards were investigating whether both teams had worked in compliance with the rules. Raikkonen and Perez both resumed the race a lap down.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.