Perez Wins Baku Thriller As Hamilton And Verstappen Fail To Score

Calum Gill 15:52 06/06/2021

Sergio Perez has taken his first win for Red Bull by taking the chequered flag first after a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Mexican benefitted from a high-speed tyre failure from teammate and then-leader Max Verstappen on the main straight with five laps to go. The race was subsequently red-flagged, resulting in a two lap sprint race of sorts to the end. Perez had the pole, with Hamilton lined up alongside the Red Bull. But Hamilton locked up and went straight on at the first corner, allowing Perez to take the second win of his career.

Sebastian Vettel put in a great effort, coupled with another good strategy from the Aston Martin team, to take his first podium for the team in second. And Pierre Gasly took his third career podium in third place for the AlphaTauri team. Polesitter Charles Leclerc's Ferrari dropped back from the front, and was unlucky to not get a podium after being passed by Gasly on the restart, while Lando Norris recovered well from a grid penalty to take fifth for McLaren.

Fernando Alonso achieved his best result since his comeback with 6th for the Alpine team, overtaking AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda on the restart. Tsunoda came home in seventh. Carlos Sainz recovered from an error at turn 8 early on to finish P8, while Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10.

-Full weekend results

Questions for Pirelli following big blowouts 

Max Verstappen kicks his delaminated left-rear tyre after it cost him a certain win in Baku.

There will be big questions asked of Pirelli following two big blowouts on the main straight, one for Lance Stroll, and the other for Max Verstappen, who had been leading. There appears to have been no debris on the track, so the left rear tyres on both the Aston Martin and Red Bull seem to have failed by themselves.

Stroll's crash came when he was running fourth, and yet to make a stop. He came onto the main straight on lap 30 before his left-rear tyre failed, spinning him into the left hand wall, bringing an abrupt end to his race. And then, with five laps remaining, Verstappen's car rotated into the wall at around 190mph, after his left rear also failed on the start finish straight, handing the lead to teammate Perez.

 Hamilton's error at the restart 

Hamilton had referred to the long season and his fight for the championship with Verstappen in a radio message just before the restart. "Gotta remember this is a marathon not a sprint, so you've got to be measured in how aggressive you go," Hamilton said. Team boss Toto Wolff replied: "Absolutely agree, Lewis." But when he took to the grid, Hamilton's front brakes were smoking and after getting the jump on Perez at the start, he locked up heavily and sailed into the escape road, with a golden opportunity to retake the championship lead thrown away.

After the race, Hamilton asked: "Did I have the magic on?" Race engineer Peter Bonnington replied: "Yeah, you knocked it on, bud." The 'magic' button switches the brake balance for warming the front tyres up on the formation lap and under safety car. That means Hamilton would have had excessive front brake bias, which he was not expecting, and would have caused to the lock-up. It seems Hamilton had accidentally knocked the button after switching it off before the restart. 

The rest of the field

Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa-Romeo was 11th, while Valtteri Bottas had a shocker in the other Mercedes, only managing 12th place. Mick Schumacher scored his best-ever F1 finish with 13th place, ahead of Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin in 14th. Hamilton was 15th, with Williams' Nicholas Latifi in 16th. George Russell in the other Williams retired late on with a gearbox issue, as did Esteban Ocon in the first few laps, the same issue coming up on his Alpine car. Stroll and Verstappen were the other non-finishers.

2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Full Classification