SERGIO Perez won an extraordinarily dramatic Azerbaijan GP for Red Bull after team-mate Max Verstappen lost a certain victory in a high-speed accident five laps from the end, and Lewis Hamilton botched the subsequent restart to ruin his own chance of success.
After Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had already suffered an accident when his left-rear tyre suddenly let go at around 200mph on Baku’s long main straight, Verstappen’s afternoon suffered a similarly scary conclusion on lap 46.
Verstappen was headed for a key victory to stretch his title lead over Hamilton to 15 points when his own left-rear tyre suddenly let go and the Red Bull slammed into the outside wall on the pit straight.
Kicking the failed tyre as he exited his crashed car, Verstappen trudged away and seemed set to lose the points lead to Hamilton, who was now running second to Perez.
But there was one final extraordinary final twist to come.
After the race was red-flagged and the cars returned to the pit lane while the track could be cleared, the event was eventually restarted late into the Baku afternoon with a second standing start from the grid for the final two laps.
Hamilton, whose Mercedes brakes were smoking as they lined back up on the grid, got a better getaway than Perez and appeared set to lead into from the Red Bull into Turn One.
But, inexplicably for a driver who makes so few mistakes, Hamilton ran straight on and dropped to 16th place and out of the points. With so little time to recover, the world champion finished 15th – ending a record run of 54 races in the points stretching back to 2018.
“Just on the restart, I think when Checo moved over towards me I clipped a switch and it basically switches the brakes off, and I went straight,” explained Hamilton to Sky F1. “Very hard to take but I’m mostly just really sorry to the men and women in the team who have worked so hard for these points.”
With neither title contender scoring points, Verstappen therefore retains his four-point championship advantage.
With Perez closing out the final laps for his second career win after a strong performance all race, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel capped his own remarkable day to claim second and a first podium for his new team.
The German, fifth two weeks ago in Monaco, had started 11th on the grid but hauled himself up the order via a long first stint.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, a consistent front-runner all weekend, took third for the third podium of his young career after overtaking Charles Leclerc at the restart.
Leclerc had started on pole but the Ferrari did not have the race pace to challenge and had quickly been overhauled by Hamilton and the two Red Bulls. He eventually secured fourth, just ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who had recovered well from a grid penalty and then poor start.
Fernando Alonso started 10th at the restart but the wily Spaniard was on the move for the two-lap dash to the flag and secured sixth place for the best result of his F1 return with Alpine.
With Valtteri Bottas enduring a dismal afternoon and finishing 12th, Mercedes unusually ended with no points from the weekend and so slip further behind Red Bull in the standings after Perez’s win.
