Sergio Perez powers to win in duel against his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen at Azerbaijan GP, with Charles Leclerc in third and Lewis Hamilton back in sixth place
- Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan grand prix in comfortable circumstances
- The Red Bull driver has ignited the championship race with Max Verstappen
- Verstappen initially led but lost his position to a pit stop under a safety car
Sergio Perez made a contest of the world championship fight by beating Max Verstappen to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Mexican was advantaged by an early safety car phase but was already showing good pace and then controlled the race to make it two wins each for the Red Bull pair. There are just six points separating Verstappen at the top from his team-mate.
It was a brilliant weekend for Perez, who also took the honours in the sprint race on Saturday. Verstappen was runner-up both times.
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso fourth for Aston Martin.
Lewis Hamilton, in good form on the day, was sixth for Mercedes, a place off Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan grand prix taking place on the season’s first street circuit of the year
Perez was superb in his Red Bull to take an eventually comfortable win over his team-mate Max Verstappen
Perez (right) maintained his lead over Leclerc after a restart following a safety car
Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell finished eighth, also setting the fastest lap after a late change of tyres, and fellow Brit Lando Norris ninth for McLaren.
The Red Bulls were too fast for the rest with both Verstappen and Perez passing pole man Leclerc early on at 215mph. That was lap four, as soon as DRS was enabled. Perez made the same move two laps later, both on the start/finish straight.
It was in Red Bulls’ hands now, each driver matching the other.
Verstappen (right) and Perez (left) celebrated together at the end of the street race
Lewis Hamilton (middle) recovered from a poorly-timed pitstop to finish sixth in Baku
The pivotal moment came on lap 10 when Nyck de Vries banged his AlphaTauri on the entrance of Turn 4. Red Bull strangely called Verstappen in to be reshod moments later.
They should have waited to see if, as was likely and transpired, a safety car was deployed and then pitted him. The mistake of following their preordained strategy put him down to third.
He whipped straight past Leclerc again but followed Perez around all the rest of the afternoon as the tension fell away. The gap at the end stood at 2.1 seconds.
The safety car also hurt Hamilton and he plummeted from fifth to 10th. He soared back up the field and passed Russell in the other Mercedes impressively to take seventh and then capitalised on a mistake by Aston’s Lance Stroll for sixth.
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