Hamilton lucks into wild win at Baku as Bottas blows tire from lead; Raikkonen salvages P2 but Vettel misses out as Perez podiums; Red Bulls crash each other out

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has quickly become one of the most entertaining and potentially consequential on the Formula 1 calendar. In only its third year on the schedule the tricky Baku City Circuit once again provided more than its fair share of twists, turns and nail-biting drama. Fortune seemed to change its favors on a whim as chaos reigned and the laps wound down on Sunday and it was Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton whom she finally chose to smile upon even as she turned her fickle back on his more deserving teammate. With Valtteri Bottas looking primed to win for the first time in 2018 due to clever pit strategy and (once again) the strangely permissive nature of F1’s pit rules under Safety Car the unlucky Finn ran over debris at high speed down the start-finish straight with only two laps to go, puncturing his rear right tire and dooming his race. As Bottas trundled despondently off the track and into a hard-luck DNF, second position Hamilton capitalized on his teammate’s misfortune to inherit the lead and the victory in short order. Amazingly it was the current World Champion’s first victory of the new season and gave the Englishman a much needed boost after a desultory start saw him a lackluster second in the championship. But if we’re all being honest Bottas has outdriven the 4-time champ Hamilton so far this season and Sunday was no exception. But for a better track cleanup under the long yellow flag periods it could have been the unlucky Finn celebrating at his teammate’s expense rather than the other way around.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Despite leading both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships so far this season and with a car that is obviously up for race wins every weekend Ferrari had another very mixed day. Their lead ace Sebastian Vettel controlled the first part of the race from pole but then the team seemed to get a bit too ambitious on tire strategy by running longer stints and allowing the Mercedes to erase Vettel’s hard fought time advantage on fresher rubber. Worse still when a major Safety Car came out on Lap 40 after a disastrous incident between the two Red Bulls it was the Merc of Bottas who made the first dive to the pits for the Ultrasoft Pirellis, the perfect rubber for the closing laps of this 51 lap street fight. Vettel, as well as Hamilton, were forced to react but that left Bottas in the lead with Vettel behind in P2 running seemingly endless laps behind the Safety Car on rapidly cooling tires. When the race finally got going again on Lap 48 Vettel pushed too hard to try to regain the top spot, locking up and running off line as first Hamilton and then his teammate Kimi Raikkonen passed him. The flat spots on his tires made his normally fantastic SF71H underivable and eventually even the Force India of Sergio Perez was also able to pass him. With Bottas’ unfortunate puncture that meant not only that Hamilton would earn the victory but also that Raikkonen and Perez would be on the podium at Vettel’s expense. After leading the most laps and looking  likely to duke it out for the win Vettel finished a disappointing P4. The German points leader and his team had to be wondering where it all went wrong on a day that started with so much promise.

Raikkonen had a saga of his own en route to that impressive if somewhat fortuitous P2 finish. The veteran Finn, who had a poor qualifying and started from back in P6 on the grid, got tangled up with the midfield running Esteban Ocon on the opening lap, sending Ocon’s Force India out of the race and Raikkonen into the pits for a new nose. But with all the full course yellow in this crazy race the Finnish veteran was able to claw back track position to put himself where he needed to be to capitalize on others’ misfortunes at the end. It was a much needed positive result for Raikkonen who has thus far been comprehensively outshined by Vettel, his illustrious 4-time World Champion teammate.

That last and longest Safety Car period was caused by an absolute disaster for team Red Bull. After allowing their two aggressive stars Daniel Ricciardo and Max Vertsappen to dice all race long things got out of hand on Lap 40 when Ricciardo, who had arguably been the quicker the whole race, tried to make a move down the front straight as Verstappen headed towards Turn 1. The volatile young Dutchman appeared to move more than once in an effort to block his Aussie teammate and Ricciardo misjudged his speed, plowing into the back of Verstappen’s car and sending both Red Bulls sliding off track and out of the race. After the pair had been going hammer and tongs all race long and with the team unwilling to issue team orders it was fairly predictable outcome to the afternoon even if it was still shocking to see the teammates take each other out. Afterwards team principal Christian Horner was understandably livid but one wonders whether a more decisive approach from the pit wall might have managed to avoid such a catastrophe. As it was, the team scored zero points on a day when they should have been guaranteed a big haul, falling further back of the top two teams and seemingly now doomed to third in the Constructors’ all season long.

But Red Bull’s double DNF was sweet music to Sergio Perez’s ears. With his teammate Ocon out early, Force India were counting on the Mexican driver to pull one of his occasional podium-worthy drives. By keeping it clean and maximizing the pace of his Mercedes-powered chassis on the straights, Perez kept himself in contention to take advantage of others’ mistakes. When the Red Bulls crashed out and then Vettel blew it on the re-start Perez pounced. And when Bottas punctured that put him P3 at the finish, a great result for him and for the team. It also gave Perez the all-time F1 podium record for a Mexican national with 8, eclipsing the legendary Pedro Rodriguez’s total and a record that has stood since 1971.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, several other drivers and teams benefitted from the mishaps of the putative front runners. Carlos Sainz drove a sneaky and superb race, bringing his factory Renault home an excellent P5, a fine result after his teammate Nico Hulkenberg crashed out earlier in the race. Rookie Charles Leclerc also had an excellent run, finishing  P6 for perpetual back marker Sauber. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso survived a double puncture on Lap 1 and despite floor damage kept circulating when many a team and driver might have called it a day. Both were rewarded with a solid P7 finish. Better still for McLaren Stoffel Vandoorne made sure it was a double points scoring day by coming home in P9 after running well outside the points for most of the day. Lance Stroll gave struggling Williams their first points of the year at a track where he podiumed last year. if the result was not quite as good as that 2017 P3 Stroll and the team will still take his P8 at this year’s event in what has so far otherwise been dismal season. Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Brendan Hartley took the last points-paying position in P10, a satisfying result for the Kiwi after nearly meandering into a big shunt with his teammate Pierre Gasly in Saturday qualifying.

Top 10 finishers of the Azerbaijan GP:

Complete race results available via Fourmla1.com.

Notes: Haas driver Romain Grosjean extended the post-Red Bull Safety Car period considerably by boneheadedly slamming his car into the wall while attempting to keep his tires warm. While he tried to blame getting hit from behind for the mishap it was clear from replays that the Frenchman had no one to blame but himself. As a veteran driver that sort of thing just shouldn’t happen. To add insult to injury the red-faced Grosjean has exactly zero points for Haas after the first 4 rounds.

The next race is in two weeks time — the Grand Premio de España at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. While one can’t promise the same sort of insanity as we saw at Baku there will certainly be hungry drivers looking for redemption and fighting for victory. Hope to see you then to see how it all shakes out!