The F1 Circus arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a place that has produced some unpredictable and somewhat spectacular races in the past, no wonder it is called The Land of Fire!

FRIDAY

It was hot and windy, very windy for the practice sessions on Friday afternoon (local).

Seven of the ten teams brought new rear wings and other updates, so FP1 saw every driver come out almost immediately after the green light allow them with the first fast laps right after.

First yellow flag and VSC (Virtual Safety Car) came after Mick Schumacher’s Haas stopped at turn 12 with his VF22 leaking lots of water. Car was quickly recovered, and practice resumed, but only for a few minutes as Nicholas Latifi stopped his Williams on track after a loss of power, albeit near an escape road. Second VSC of the day. Practice resumed and at the end, it was Sergio Perez, continuing his great form after his Monaco win, setting the fastest lap, a 1:45.476, ahead of Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Fernando Alonso.

At exactly 6:00 PM in the afternoon the second practice started. The track had much more shadows in it as the sun started to go down, and it was a lot cooler, 15 degrees cooler than in the earlier FP1. But it was the only chance the teams and drivers had to experience how Qualifying was going to be like. And after a few yellow flags for minor incidents, it was Charles Leclerc’s 1:43.224 the fastest time of the session. He was followed by Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, and Carlos Sainz the top five.

SATURDAY

The last practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was delayed as there was some damage on the barrier at turn one from an F2 race crash earlier on.

After a 15-minute delay, FP3 was finally underway. It was warm, 30 degrees ambient, 53 degrees on track, but a glorious afternoon to go motor racing. It took almost 12 minutes for the first timed lap to come up, and after 17 minutes, only nine, out of the twenty cars, had set a lap time. From then on, it was business as usual with only a few minor incidents here and there. Fastest of the session was Sergio Perez.

QUALIFYING

Q1

As with FP3, Qualifying was also delayed by 15 minutes. It started at 6:15 PM local time. And there was a huge queue formed at the pit lane exit as everyone was desperate to start. And as expected, Red Bull and Ferrari were trading fastest laps between the two teams and the four drivers. With less than three minutes left, Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at turn 2, bringing out a Red Flag, and bad news for the drivers at the bottom of the timesheet. It took a few minutes to clear the track and another queue formed in the pit lane, again, but surprisingly, everyone made it before the checkered flag. At the end, Magnussen, Albon, Latifi, Stroll, and Schumacher were the ones eliminated.

Q2

As had happened in Q1, Ferrari and Red Bull were the fastest on track, trading places between them, while being more than a second clear from everybody else. There were a couple of incidents with Vettel not being able to brake on time, Tsunoda touching the wall, as did Verstappen, but nothing compromising anyone’s times. And out of contention were Norris, Ricciardo, Ocon, Zhou, and Bottas.

Q3

The final 12 minutes started with both Ferrari drivers setting fastest times, about a tenth ahead of both Red Bull. Everyone else more than a second behind the faster quartet. And with a mighty lap, Charles Leclerc claims Pole Position, his sixth of the season, fourth in a row, and fifteenth in F1, ahead of Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, George Russel, Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Sebastian Vettel, and Fernando Alonso the Top Ten.

SUNDAY

Fernando Alonso broke the record of the longest interval between a driver’s first and last F1 race: 21 years, 3 months, and 8 days. A record he will continue to break every race until he retires. How long is that, you might wonder, just think that Yuki Tsunoda was a little over 9 months old when Alonso turned up on the grid at the 2001 Australian GP and now, they are both racing against each other.

The race started on a baking hot track and had Perez overtaking Leclerc for the lead before the first turn. The Mexican began making an ever-increasing gap to Leclerc, who was defending from Verstappen. Sadly, on lap 9 of 51, Carlos Sainz stopped at turn 4 after his Ferrari had a major issue (hydraulic issue). VSC was deployed and lots of drivers took advantage of a pitstop. Leclerc was the only one from the top three to change tires, he came out in third, behind Perez and Verstappen.

The race resumed a couple of laps later Vettel overtook Gasly for ninth but couldn’t brake on time and went into the escape road, losing a couple of places. Meanwhile, up in front, Verstappen overtook his teammate for the lead of the race, while Leclerc was eating the gap at a very fast pace. On lap 17, Perez came into the pits for a new set of hard tires. Leclerc was now second. Perez came out in third but just a few meters ahead of a hard-charging George Russell in the Mercedes.

On lap 19, Verstappen stopped for hard tires, coming out ahead of Perez in second, 13.620 seconds behind Leclerc.

On lap 20, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari retired on a huge cloud of smoke. Double DNF for the Italian squad. Verstappen inherited the lead, 4.4 seconds ahead of Perez, who was 7.9 seconds ahead of Russell in third. Four laps later, Zhou was told to box to retire his Alfa Romeo from the race.

Magnussen had to retire the car on lap 33. The fourth Ferrari-powered car with power unit-related problems. VSC was deployed while the Haas was recovered. Verstappen was the first to take advantage of it, Perez did the same, as did Russell. All of them came out in the same order as before the VSC but with fresh tires.

On lap 38, the black and orange (A mechanical black flag is a black flag with an orange disc in its center which indicates that a vehicle is being summoned to the pits due to serious mechanical problems or loose bodywork that presents a risk to other competitors.) flag was displayed to Yuki Tsunoda, who had an issue with his AlphaTauri’s DRS actuator. He came into the pits and the mechanics taped his rear wing and instructed the driver to not use the DRS for the rest of the race.

On lap 41, Verstappen was instructed not to use DRS for the rest of the race. Seven laps later, Lance Stroll retired his Aston Martin.

In the end, it was a 1 - 2 for Red Bull as Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, ahead of Sergio Perez, who had the extra point for fastest lap, and a very happy George Russell in third. Lewis Hamilton was fourth, voted Driver of the Day, but was visibly in lots of back pain for having to endure the bouncing of his Mercedes the whole race.

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