Yesterday's race was quite entertaining, as Max Verstappen was looking to extend his championship lead from Hamilton by winning his first-ever Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but a rear tyre puncture made him lose control and crash into the barriers with just five laps to go – giving Sergio Perez a second career victory, and his first one with Redbull. Lewis Hamilton also locked up on the penultimate lap to finish 15th in a hugely dramatic race in Baku.
For the first time this season, Charles Leclerc led away from the pole, but he was passed for the lead by Lewis Hamilton without using DRS on Lap 2. Later on, Verstappen and Perez also overtook the Ferrari, pushing him out of the podium places. After a few laps, Verstappen took the lead after a crucial sequence of pit stops, Hamilton starting that sequence on Lap 12 with a slow switch for hards thanks to traffic in the pit lane. Verstappen pitted a lap later and emerged first, followed by Perez who split the championship rivals.
On Lap 35, Lance Stroll's terrifying accident called in the Safety Car, which gave Max a comfortable lead at the restart. That was until Lap 47 when he spun and crashed after an apparent tyre issue of his own. Unhurt, but shaken, his crash triggered the Safety Car, which turned into a red flag that suspended the race on Lap 48. The race resumed with a standing start 35 minutes later on Lap 50, giving us two laps of flat-out action, with the field all having switched tyres during the stoppage.
At the second restart, Perez lead Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly and Leclerc off the line. Hamilton got away well, his car was seemingly ahead of Perez's, but the Briton locked up heavily and went into the Turn 1 run-off area, which meant he finished 15th, leaving Perez in the lead, Vettel second and Gasly in P3, who held off Leclerc in the final laps to take the final podium spot. Watch the highlights here:
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