Sergio Perez claimed his second win of 2023, beating his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen to victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku to close up the gap between them in the drivers championship to just six points.
Verstappen had taken an early lead to the race with a pass on pole sitter Charles Leclerc, but lost out with the timing of an early safety car for an accident involving AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries.
Perez was more fortunate and inherited the lead, which he then retained for the rest of the afternoon despite Verstappen's best efforts, with Leclerc third on the podium ahead of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz.
After the novelty of Saturday's new-look sprint format, it was back to business as normal on Sunday for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the streets of Baku. For the second time in two days, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was on pole position ahead of the Red Bulls, but this time it was Max Verstappen lining up alongside him on the front row and sprint race winner Sergio Perez starting from third alongside Carlos Sainz. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were poised to pounce from row three if the opportunity presented itself. And at Baku, it often did.
It was hot and sticky in the city as the cars completed their slow formation lap and lined up on the grid, the top 17 all using the medium compound after the sprint race proved the soft tyre to be a positive liability. When the lights went out, Leclerc was able to hold the lead despite an aggressively angled Verstappen, with Perez slotting in to his team mate's slipstream. Further back, Lance Stroll was up to seventh ahead of Lando Norris, with George Russell picking up places to go ninth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who had struggled off the line and lost two spots.
Further back there had been a minor midfield clash between Oscar Piastri and Alex Albon at turn 2, which had caused Valtteri Bottas to brake and get rear-ended by Kevin Magnussen. It left debris on the track that was quickly attended to by fleet-footed marshals under local double waved yellow flags, enabling the race to continue unaffected. Leclerc was already coming under pressure from Verstappen even before DRS was enabled, and once it was available to the Red Bull the Dutch driver sailed past to take the lead into turn 1 on lap 4. Next time by, Perez tried to do the same but found it slightly harder work to dispatch the Ferrari, before finally squeezing down the inside of Leclerc on lap 6.
Now everything was on hold pending the first round of pit stops. The Red Bulls were managing their tyres while Hamilton was already noting some degradation in fifth, encouraging Alonso and his Aston Martin partner Stroll to probe for any weaknesses. First to pit was Bottas followed by Albon on lap 8, the Williams having damaged its front wing in that first lap incident and now taking the opportunity to switch to the hard compound.
Hamilton was first of the front runners to come in on lap 10 followed by Norris. It was bad news for the seven time world champion who came out behind Zhou Guanyu and a gaggle of cars that had opted to start on the hard compound. Among those was AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries who had been having a torrid weekend, even before he now ran straight on at turn 6 on lap 11 after clipping the wall on entry and damaging his suspension. Verstappen reacted immediately and surrendered the lead to pit - only for race control to then deploy the safety car, as de Vries climbed out of his stricken AT04 and walked away from the scene of the accident.
Taking the opportunity for a 'free' stop under the caution, Perez was in next time by. He was followed by the other cars yet to make their first stops including both Ferraris double-stacking. The mad scramble ended up with Perez retaining the lead and Leclerc up to second ahead of Verstappen. Sainz was fourth from Alonso, while Russell had benefited from the sequence and was in fifth ahead of Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg. The big loser in all this was Hamilton who was down to tenth ahead of Norris, Tsunoda and Piastri.
The race resumed on lap 14 with Perez defending from Leclerc, and Verstappen able to take advantage of the distraction to immediately snatch back second from the Monegasque. Turn 4 saw a dramatic lunge down the inside from Alonso on Sainz that paid off brilliantly to take fourth, and Stroll had also got the better of Russell. Hamilton picked up two positions and then found it child's play to benefit from Russell's momentary discombobulation to pass his team mate as well for seventh. Russell's only response was to apologise over the team radio for a poor restart, while Hamilton had his sights set on passing Stroll who had already tagged the wall at turn 5, but the Ferrari survived without sustaining significant tyre or suspension damage.
Now the question was how the battle between the Red Bull team mates would play out at the front. Perez was setting purple sectors and was able to pull out of DRS range of Verstappen, the pair six seconds out of range of Leclerc by lap 19. Alonso was catching the Ferrari but was still under threat from Sainz, Stroll, Hamilton, Russell, Ocon and Hulkenberg, the latter pair having started on the hard tyres and hence yet to make their first stop, meaning they were holding up faster cars behind them in a DRS train. A wild slide for Stroll after the rear end of the Aston Martin stepped out at the final corner gave Hamilton a wide-open opportunity to pass the Aston on lap 20, and the Mercedes then set off in pursuit of Sainz.
Ocon had become the latest driver to kiss the barriers, but the Alpine survived the amorous encounter and was able to continue in ninth although it took the pressure off Russell. Meanwhile at the front, Verstappen was turning the screw on Perez and was back within DRS range and edging ever closer to the back of the Mexican's car - although he could get only so far and no further once he hit the dirty air.
At half distance, Perez and Verstappen had more than 12 seconds in hand over Leclerc and Alonso, with Sainz now under pressure from Hamilton and Stroll feeling the heat from Russell. Ocon and Hulkenberg were still hanging on to their top ten spots ahead of Norris, Tsunoda, Piastri, Albon, Magnussen and Zhou with Logan Sargeant in 17th, ahead of Bottas and Pierre Gasly who had both made two stops. Hulkenberg was next to have a glancing blow with the wall on lap 26, but he too was lucky and able to carry on with no lasting harm done.
Perez' perseverance at the front was rewarded by finally breaking out of DRS range of Verstappen, who was having a scrappy mid-stint and complaining about his car's handling: "The balance between diff and engine braking is not good!" he reported. With the Red Bulls now looking unlikely to make a second stop , feverish discussions at Ferrari saw Sainz and the engineers comparing the merits of Plan A against Plan C, with Plan B - whatever that had been - seemingly no longer an option. Behind him on track, Hamilton was starting to fall away from the Ferrari and complaining about his tyres graining.
Verstappen tickled the barrier on lap 33, and Perez also harmlessly clipped the wall at turn 15 a lap later, evidence that both men were still pushing hard, going flat out and not taking anything for granted. The pressure on Leclerc was eased as Alonso started to struggle with tyre wear, while Sainz' planning consultation with the Maranello town council had opted for tyre management to see him to the finish rather than an extra stop, which meant he was falling into the clutches of Hamilton once again. Further back, Zhou became the second retirement of the afternoon after the Alfa Romeo pit wall ordered him to box with an issue, just moments after Bottas made his third stop of the day for mediums. It dropped the Finn off the lead lap in what was proving a terrible outing for the squad.
With the remaining laps counting down, the tyre wear situation seemed to even out. After 45 laps on the same set of hard tyres, Hulkenberg ran out of rubber and slid wide at turn 7 allowing Norris to finally snatch a place in the top ten from the Haas. After he also succumbed to passes from Tsunoda and Piastri and fell to P13, Hulkenberg appealed to come in for new tyres but the team explained that it was worth holding out in case of a safety car or red flag incident. It never came, as Albon and Magnussen also forced their way past and Hulkenberg continued his decent to the basement.
Hamilton had been throwing everything into his assault on Sainz for fifth but was unable to pull it off. With little to lose Mercedes decided to split strategies and bring Russell on lap 50 in for a second 'free' stop and a set of soft tyres getting him back out without loss of eighth position ahead of Ocon, and now in successful pursuit of the bonus point for fastest lap.
There was no doubt about the winner, with Perez holding on to a two second lead over Verstappen at the chequered flag to reduce the reigning world champion's lead in the divers standings to just six points. Leclerc joined them on the podium, ending Alonso's run of consecutive top three finishes in 2023. Sainz had successfully fended off Hamilton for fifth, followed by Stroll, Russell, Norris and Tsunoda after Ocon pitted before the final lap for his mandatory change of compound, which dropped him out of the top ten and down to P15 at the line.
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