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Tyres NorthamptonIn what is becoming a familiar tale in recent Formula One races, Ferrari will be wondering what might've been in an Azerbaijan Grand Prix where they once again lost ground to Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen took his first victory around the Baku City Circuit, completing what his tyres so dramatically denied him in F1's last visit to the track. Red Bull's 1-2 finish was a formality following two mechanical failures by their rivals in red, with Carlos Sainz retiring after a hydraulics issue and Charles Leclerc's lead coming to an end in a cloud of engine smoke.
The 2022 Azerbaijan GP may not have continued the trend of chaos and carnage on the Baku streets, but it did have the unpredictability that we've come to expect when racing here. Various retirements littered the race and two Virtual Safety Car periods offered strategic pit stops – something several drivers exploited as they tenderly used their Pirelli tyres to advance through the field.
Following his win in Monaco and subsequent two-year contract extension, Sergio Perez jumped past polesitter Leclerc to take the lead into Turn 1. The Mexican driver won last time in Baku and soon used his familiarity with the 6km circuit to build a gap to the chasing Monegasque. Although there wasn't any on-track passing, Verstappen filled Leclerc's mirrors by keeping his Red Bull close to the Prancing Horse's tail.
While his teammate fended off Verstappen's attention, Sainz kept a watching brief in P4 until he lost power on Lap 8 and pulled into an escape road to become the race's first retirement. With the pit window open, the sister Ferrari took advantage of the subsequent full-course slow down to take a 'cheap' pit stop. Ferrari fitted Pirelli's hard tyres, hoping to run them until the end of the race. Inversely, Both Red Bulls stayed out, looking to pit later and use the additional Pirelli grip to pass on track in the race's closing laps.
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Behind the leaders, George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel also chose to swap out their yellow-walled medium tyres for the hard compound tyre, too. However, the McLaren and Alpine drivers didn't – and they entered the midfield fight with their old, slower Pirellis. Esteban Ocon's jump into the top ten particularly caused frustration for Vettel and Hamilton as they couldn't get by the Frenchman despite the tyre advantage, with Vettel running wide at Turn 3 when trying to overtake.
Without Leclerc separating the Red Bull teammates, Verstappen soon closed in on his teammate and used DRS down the 2km-long start-finish straight to take P1 away from Perez. "No fighting" was the message from the pit wall to Sergio, and the Mexican complied. Now was the turn for the constructors' championship leaders to pit, and they first called in Perez, then Verstappen to box for their hard compound rubber.
Their trip to the pit lane let Leclerc regain first place, but the lead proved short-lived. As the championship hopeful turned onto the main straight, a puff of smoke shot out of his exhaust before clouds of grey fumes followed the SF-75 into the pit lane, where Leclerc joined his teammate to retire. The race now had Verstappen leading from Perez, with Russell sitting in the final podium spot.
Even though the front places wouldn't change, the midfield fight raged on, and the cat-and-mouse game of trying to extend tyre life while battling other cars was in full swing. Hamilton had now passed Ocon but was far from Gasly's P4 after the unexpected time behind the Alpine driver – Ocon had still not pitted to swap out his first set of Pirellis.
On Lap 33, Kevin Magnussen's Haas mirrored Leclerc's Ferrari to suffer a power unit failure. The Dane wasn't close enough to the pit lane to retire, and his stranded VF-22 required a Virtual Safety Car for the marshalls to clear off the track. This second slowdown of the race allowed Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo, and Valtteri Bottas to finally switch onto Pirelli's medium tyres in their contrary strategy. Perhaps with one mind on the failures that caused a red flag in the 2021 event, the leading three racers also used the opportunity to grab new rubber.
Hamilton was the only other driver to swap his tyres in this second VSC, but his stop was for strategic purposes. The Brit lost a place while he pitted, but the speed of his fresh Pirelli tyres meant he catapulted through the field from P6 and up to P4 to recover more points – and a little pride – in his disappointing season. Meanwhile, his Mercedes teammate Russell enjoyed his third podium visit of the season and continues an impressive run of finishing inside the top five in each of the opening eight rounds.
The day belonged to Max Verstappen, though, and he now has a 21-point gap to the new name sitting P2 in the championship standings – Sergio Perez. With a rapid turnaround for Montreal this coming weekend for the first Canadian Grand Prix since 2019, will Red Bull push their advantage or can Ferrari bounce back quickly? There's not long until we find out.
