Sergio Perez led Max Verstappen to a dominant Red Bull Racing one-two finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a conveniently timed safety car catapulted him into the lead.
Verstappen and Perez trailed polesitter Charles Leclerc at the start, but there was no holding them back once DRS was activated. Verstappen breezed past on lap 4 with an almost embarrassing advantage of 19mph, and Perez followed him through two tours later.
The Mexican was the quickest driver on track at that point, and he reeled off a series of fastest laps to close to within a second of his leading teammate and set up a duel for the lead.
Continue reading on RACERSergio PĂ©rez easily beats Charles Leclerc to victory in the sprint, while Max Verstappen fumes about George Russell’s driving standards.
Max Verstappen wants Formula 1 to scrap sprint weekends and focus instead on finding ways to close the field after the first Saturday of the year run to the tweaked trial format.
F1 introduced the sprint format in 2021 as a trial to address the balance between competitive track time and practice sessions. This year there will be six sprint rounds, the first of which is this weekend in Azerbaijan.
Under the original sprint rules, qualifying was moved to Friday and set the grid for a 30-minute, 62-mile race in the previous qualifying slot in the schedule on Saturday. The results of the sprint would then set the starting order for Sunday’s grand prix.
Continue reading on RACERSecond place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc held off a charging Sergio Perez at the start of the sprint, but his defence of the lead lasted only until DRS was enabled following an early safety car intervention.
The SF-23’s strong form through the technical middle sector wasn’t enough to generate a buffer, and the Mexican breezed past down the front straight and onwards to a comfortable victory.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell says Max Verstappen should have known the risks associated with trying to hold position around the outside of a corner after the two drivers made contact on the first lap of the Azerbaijan sprint.
Verstappen started third alongside Russell, whose third place grid spot gave him the inside line for the first three corners, and the Briton made the most of it by claiming the apex of all three and forcing the Dutchman to try to cling on with a wider line to hold position.
Both got through the first corner cleanly, but Russell’s front-right wheel tagged the left side of Verstappen’s car as they exited Turn 2, tearing a hole in the RB19’s sidepod and causing other minor damage.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez eased to a comfortable victory at the Azerbaijan sprint ahead of Charles Leclerc.
Perez started from second alongside Leclerc but couldn’t jump the Ferrari off the line. The race was then neutralized at the end of the first lap with a safety car owing to Yuki Tsunoda crashing his car at Turn 14.
Leclerc managed the restart beautifully when the race resumed on lap 6 of 17, but his SF-23 wasn’t a match for the RB19’s straight-line speed, particularly with DRS enabled down the long front straight.
Continue reading on RACERFranz Tost says AlphaTauri was forced to announce its acquisition of Laurent Mekies earlier than anticipated because the news had begun to leak in the Italian media.
AlphaTauri issued a press release on the eve of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend announcing that Tost would step down as team principal at the end of the season to make way for current Ferrari racing director Mekies, with Peter Bayer taking up the CEO role.
The press release came as a surprise to Ferrari principal Frederic Vasseur, who said his team wasn’t yet ready to commit to releasing the French engineer.
Continue reading on RACERThe Azerbaijan grand prix will remain on the Formula 1 calendar until at least the end of 2026 after inking a new three-year deal.
Except 2020 due to the pandemic, the Baku race has been a mainstay of the calendar since its debut in 2016, then with the European Grand Prix moniker, and has established itself as one of the sport’s most popular street circuits for its quirky mixed-speed layout and unpredictable results.
No driver has won in Baku more than once and only Charles Leclerc has taken more than one pole position.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc beat both Red Bull drivers to pole position for the second day in a row despite crashing out of the first-ever sprint shootout.
Leclerc again wielded his Ferrari’s formidable pace in the technical middle sector to set the fastest time in the new condensed qualifying session, but a snap of oversteer entering Turn 5 led to him sliding nose-first into the outside barrier, ending his session early.
Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were presented with an open goal to snatch top spot, but neither was able to improve by enough to deprive the Monegasque of a second one-lap triumph in 24 hours.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc snatches a memorable pole position ahead of Max Verstappen, but expectations of a Ferrari resurgence are being kept low.
Pierre Gasly has accepted full responsibility for crashing his car in Q1 and ending up 19th on the grid for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The first qualifying segment had only just resumed from a red flag to collect Nyck de Vries’s crashed AlphaTauri car at Turn 3 when Gasly careened into the wall at the same corner, forcing another suspension.
It was a demoralising conclusion to a difficult day for the Frenchman, who set only seven laps in first practice before his car set itself alight and forced him to stop on track.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen was left ruing a different tire preparation lap before his crucial final Q3 lap that he believes cost him pole position to Charles Leclerc for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen and Leclerc were neck and neck after their first laps but the Ferrari driver pulled away with his second attempt to seal top spot by 0.188s. The difference all came from the second sector, in particular from the exit of the castle section at the top of the hill and the long run down to Turn 15, what is effectively the penultimate corner.
It’s the first pole position of the season for a team other than Red Bull Racing, but rather than it signifying a swing in momentum or even a setup error, Verstappen put the loss of top spot down to a misjudgment preparing his tires for his final lap.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc isn’t convinced Ferrari has the pace to convert pole to victory in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix but says the car’s unexpected turn of speed is welcome nonetheless after a difficult start to the season.
Leclerc beat title leader Max Verstappen to pole position by 0.188s after the pair had set identical times with their first runs in Q3, the difference coming in the technical middle sector of the track. It was the Monegasque’s third consecutive pole in Baku but first of the year and first since last season’s Singapore Grand Prix in October.
Ferrari has endured its worst start to a Formula 1 campaign in years, having slipped well off Red Bull Racing’s pace since the end of last season, Leclerc admitted he didn’t expect to be in the pole conversation this weekend.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc bested Max Verstappen to start Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in succession.
Ferrari had looked quick all day in Baku, vying for top spot in the single hour of practice afforded to the drivers under the sprint rules and looking consistently competitive through the qualifying hour.
The scene was set for a duel between Leclerc and Verstappen, and the pair set equal times with their first laps, the Dutchman taking top spot by virtue of crossing the line first.
Continue reading on RACERAlpine has brought a number of development pieces to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, though it’s unclear how many of the new parts may have been damaged in Pierre Gasly’s fiery stoppage during practice.
The Alpine A523 is sporting an upgrade package comprising a new floor as well as new front and rear suspension that the team hopes will haul it closer to Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. It’s also equipped with circuit-specific low-drag front and rear wings designed to tackle the high-speed Baku straights.
Speaking before the practice hour, Alpine technical director Matt Harman said the floor represented a significant step forward in the team’s thinking about its aerodynamic concept.
Continue reading on RACERFormula 1 has a new sprint round format on trial this weekend in Baku, and predictions are for chaos through the tight and twisty streets.
Max Verstappen has reiterated a threat to walk away from Formula 1 if it continues to put what he considers to be business priorities ahead of sport.
This weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the first of six sprint rounds this season but the first run to an altered format, with the shortened Saturday race getting its own qualifying session and standing alone from the main event on Sunday.
Verstappen stirred controversy at the Australian Grand Prix when asked about the changes, telling Portuguese TV that he “won’t be around for too long” if the sport continues tinkering with its weekend format and increasing the number of events in a season.
Continue reading on RACERFernando Alonso says he’s been enjoying being “active and ironic” on social media amid online gossip that he’s in a relationship with Taylor Swift.
The internet has been ablaze with unverified rumours that the two-time champion has been dating the 12-time Grammy winner. Rather than ignore or rebuff the rumours, Alonso took to social media to post a video of himself winking at the camera to the backing track of Swift’s song Karma and with the caption “race week era,” an apparent reference to the singer’s Eras tour.
Asked about how he had reacted to the sudden boom in international interest, Alonso said he took it as a sign that the sport was able to attract new fans if it played its cards right online.