Sergio Perez takes victory in dull Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Sergio Perez continued his brilliant run on street circuits to close the gap on his teammate at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship. His teammate Max Verstappen finished 2nd whilst Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the Podium lineup.
The Most Notable Moments
Barely anything happened in this race. Both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were quickly able to dispatch Charles Leclerc down the main straight before Checo started to put Max under a little bit of pressure. Yellow flags then came out as Nyck de Vries managed to clip the inside wall at turn 5 (the end of sector 1) before Verstappen pit. Quickly after Max came out of the pits, the safety car was called out and this allowed every to make a free-pitstop meaning Perez now led the race from Leclerc with Verstappen in third. On the restart, Verstappen quickly dispatched Charles again whilst Lance Stroll overtook George Russell for P6. However, the best move definitely came from Fernando Alonso who sent one on his teammate Carlos Sainz into turn 4. The two Red Bulls buggered off down the road as Lance Stroll made a mistake into turn 16 which resulted in Lewis Hamilton getting past down the main straight. Both Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon pit super late, the latter pit so late that a bunch of people were in the middle of the pitlane setting up the post-race stuff.
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve only given out one 10 for today’s race and that was of course for Sergio Perez. Checo drove a superb race, he was quicker than Max and he kept his double World Champion teammate at a comfortable distance behind to take another impressive victory. I also thought Max and Charles had really good races whilst Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda can be very happy with their respective results.
Drivers who had a Horror Race
I’ve given out a total of two 1’s for this race. The first one was for Valtteri Bottas who was absolutely nowhere today when it comes to pace. Bottas really needs to start performing better in the next few rounds. The other man that I gave a 1 to today is Nyck de Vries. Nyck’s had a really difficult season so far and it only got worse today as he managed to hit the inside wall at turn 5 which resulted in the Dutchman have to retire from the race. De Vries cannot afford too many more bad outings because otherwise, his seat at Alpha Tauri will be in trouble. I also thought Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg had bad days in terms of where they finished whilst Logan Sargeant didn’t look very competitive.
Overall Race Results and My Ratings
Sergio Perez: 10
Max Verstappen: 9
Charles Leclerc: 9
Fernando Alonso: 8
Carlos Sainz: 6
Lewis Hamilton: 7
Lance Stroll: 6
George Russell: 6 (FL)
Lando Norris: 8
Yuki Tsunoda: 8
Oscar Piastri: 6
Alex Albon: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 4
Pierre Gasly: 3
Esteban Ocon: 2
Logan Sargeant: 2
Nico Hulkenberg: 2
Valtteri Bottas: 1
Zhou Guanyu: 3 (DNF)
Nyck de Vries: 1 (DNF)
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