Sergio Perez takes his second career win at a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix for Red bull on Sunday alongside Sebastian Vettel for Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly for Alpha Tauri completing the unexpected podium. The Baku Street circuit was anything but straightforward, full of drama, wheel-to-wheel action, safety cars as well as the red flag leading to a wild 3-lap sprint to the end that rendered mind-boggling results. 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc pulled a shocking second consecutive pole position; but it was evanescent as he eventually tumbled down to fourth position, unable to keep up the pace of the SF21. This was another nightmare weekend for Mercedes, as the two Red Bulls started to close the gap to Hamilton, he dived into the pits for hard tyres on lap 12, but had a slow stop which meant Verstappen and Perez going ahead of the Mercedes even after their stops on the forthcoming laps.

Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin started his race on the hard tyre and was going great, but at a high speed on the long straight around the Baku City circuit, his rear left tyre failed forcing him to lose control and crashing into the wall. Stroll was unhurt and safety car was brought out. As the race resumed, Red Bull was looking at a double podium, but trouble knocked at their door 12 laps later. The race leader, Max Verstappen suffered a similar tyre blowout at high speed on the main straight with four laps to go. The dutchman was sound, but out of the race which was red-flagged after one lap. The FIA announced Pirelli under investigation for this disaster. 

The race was restarted using standing start with 3-laps to go, Perez on pole, Hamilton in P2 and Vettel up in third. Hamilton got a fantastic start, but due to an error causing a messy tyre lock-up, he failed to turn and went straight on into the run-off areas dropping all the way down to dead last. This result was a massively missed opportunity for Hamilton and Mercedes in the title since Max Verstappen was out of the race. With Perez’s win, Red Bull have now extended their championship lead.

Without a doubt, the driver of the day Sebastian Vettel could not have asked for a better result to his Sunday’s race. He started eleventh on the grid, missing out on Q3 by just 0.029 seconds and failing to get a chance to improve as the session was red flagged. Regardless, the four-time world champion pulled off a perfect overcut strategy to gain places, with the elimination of Verstappen and Hamilton from the front of the grid and a very gripping battle with Pierre Gasly, the German finished at 2nd place, a well-earned first podium for Aston Martin. 

After a breathtaking race in Baku, Formula 1 action will move to Paul Ricard, France for the French Grand Prix on June 18 – June 20.