Verstappen Wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Charles Leclerc Retires

Max Verstappen clinched the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and seized the Formula One World Championship after Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari engine failed once again.

Despite taking six pole positions in eight races, Leclerc has retired twice due to engine issues, leaving him 34 points behind Verstappen.

After a promising start, Ferrari’s season looks to be unravelling, as Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz also failed to finish after suffering a hydraulic failure.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez finished first and second, with Mercedes’ George Russell in third and teammate Lewis Hamilton in fourth.

Car Issues Trouble Leclerc

Perez immediately seized the initiative after a superb start, diving into Turn One on the inside and taking away Leclerc’s pole position advantage.

On lap nine, Verstappen pushed hard, but Ferrari maintained the lead until a virtual safety car phase caused by Sainz parking off the track. Ferrari took advantage of the situation by pitting for fresh tyres, while Red Bull did not, anticipating that it would give Leclerc a lead that he would keep.

After his stop, Leclerc dropped briefly to third, but Verstappen soon caught up to Perez and passed him on lap 15 for the lead, after Perez was told, ‘No fighting.’ Perez stopped again two laps later, and Verstappen stopped two laps after that.

Leclerc held a big advantage on the track after the Red Bull drivers’ pit stops, but whether he could hold off the Red Bulls, who had a significant grip advantage and were right on his tail, was unclear.

A second virtual safety car would make that question all the more interesting after Kevin Magnussen’s Haas suffered a Ferrari engine failure.

A cloud of smoke burst from Leclerc’s vehicle as he pulled away, signalling that he was out of the race by the end of lap 21.

Leclerc stated that he was more than frustrated. He believed that they weren’t very strong at the first stint at the beginning but then he was catching back Checo. He thought that pitting was the correct choice. He was leading and managed the tyres well but they just had to manage the tyres well at the end of the race. They were in the best position to do that but they had another DNF and that hurt him.

“It is more than significant. I don’t really have the words. It is just a huge disappointment and I hope we can jump back from it and be on top of those things.”

Red Bull was in complete command from that moment onward. Verstappen easily dominated Perez, and the two cars finished first and second.

Fightback for Hamilton

Russell maintained his feat of finishing in the top five in every race this season with Mercedes, first positioning in fourth after Sainz retired and then third after Leclerc retired.

The first virtual safety car period gave Hamilton a bit of a delay and dropped to 11th place after stopping for a brief moment behind his teammate.

When Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin ran wide in an attempt to pass Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, Hamilton inherited a place and he then passed Ocon a few laps later.

Despite having an issue with his back as the car was bouncing down the straights, Hamilton managed to pass both Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauris to take a well-deserved result.

Vettel finished behind Gasly in fifth, with Alonso of Alpine, the McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris (who were split up in different strategies and had some radio back and forth about who should pass who), and Ocon all finishing behind Gasly.

The Next Race

The Canadian Grand Prix is back on the F1 schedule for the first time since 2019 as it was dropped off the calendar because of the pandemic.

Williams Racing Performance

Alex Albon finished 12th and Nicholas Latifi 15th after starting 17th and 18th respectively.

What they said:

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:

The race in Baku is usually an exciting one and this edition followed that form. Alex raced very well and the pace of the FW44 in race trim was good today. The timing of the VSC which allowed Bottas to stay ahead was frustrating, but that is racing; at least we forced the situation by stopping Alex for a 2nd time and played an aggressive hand in pursuit of a better result. At the end of the race, we stopped the car immediately as we could see something on the data that we were not comfortable with.

Nicholas had a tough day, with an immediate penalty for a minor breach of the regulations on the grid. The penalty is mandated by the regulations and we were at fault, albeit only momentarily so we need to review our process and ensure that it doesn’t happen in the future. From there, Nicholas was always going to have a tough race, but he successfully completed a 1-stop race, which was not easy in today’s hot conditions.

Alex Albon:

It was a fun race here in Baku! We just got a bit unlucky with the VSC timing, otherwise we would have been in a better place to fight for points today, but again our race pace was actually really strong. If you look at our pace relative to the midfield it was very strong; we were as quick if not quicker than a lot of cars in front of us. We had a good start, optimised what we had, and it was a well-executed race for us.

Nicholas Latifi:

It’s unfortunate that the penalty undid everything before it even started. I feel like there should be some leniency applied for what the infringement was as I was just pushed back, and nothing was changed to the car. It was tricky being so far off from the pack then the cycle of blue flags and getting caught by the leaders very early on. The race ended up being a very long and lonely one. We managed to get more mileage and laps with the car, but overall a challenging weekend on this track. A day to forget but excited to be heading straight to Canada for my first home race.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results

2022 FIA Formula One World Championship Schedule