A reminder of the points that were an offer in the Sprint today:
P1 – 8 points
P2 – 7 points
P3 – 6 points
P4 – 5 points
P5 – 4 points
P6 – 3 points
P7 – 2 points
P8 – 1 point
Unlike the Grand Prix, there was no mandatory change of tyres required and, unless cars hit damage or puncture or it rained, there was no reason for them to leave the action on track for the pit lane between lights out and the chequered flag.
Drivers were free to run on whatever tyre compound – hard, medium or soft – that they wish.
The FIA also confirmed that the restart procedure in the event of a race suspension were updated ahead of this afternoon’s Baku Sprint. After a third standing start of the race in Melbourne resulted in a chaotic restart with several collisions, drivers have been keen to find a way to prevent a repeat. The temporary solution, which was confirmed in race director Niels Wittich’s race notes on Saturday, was to allow the pack to control their own pace on their way from the pit lane to the grid, as opposed to being led by the Safety Car. The Safety Car now left the pit lane 30 seconds before the pack, enabling the leader to dictate the pace, theoretically enabling the cars to go faster and build up tyre temperature – a lack of which contributed to the incidents at Albert Park.
The FIA has confirmed that the changes were only temporary measure, and further discussions will be had to find a “permanent solution” to the issue.
As the clock ticked to 5.30pm local time, Ferrari man Charles Leclerc led the field away for the formation lap. Everyone was on medium tyres apart from Lando Norris and Valtteri Bottas who were on soft tyres. Interestingly, Max Verstappen was on a used set of medium tyres in third. Pole sitter Charles Leclerc had a shiny new set of mediums bolted, ready for 17 fast and furious laps around Baku.
It was a great start for Charles Leclerc: the Monegasque was able to fend off Sergio Perez and keep the lead, while George Russell and Max Verstappen were battling it out through turns one and two. And the Mercedes was ahead of the Red Bull at Turn Three! On the first lap, Yuki Tsunoda’s right rear tyre was rolling down the hill from Turn 15-16: the AlphaTauri driver had a moment somewhere and the tyre had completely come off the rim, which meant the Virtual Safety Car was deployed as the tyre was on the racing line. Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits.
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The debris from Tsunoda’s earlier incident needed to be cleared, so a full safety car was then deployed, as the cars bunched up behind that safety car.
Debris cleared up, the Safety Car came back in at the end of lap 5, as the AlphaTauri returned to the pits for the second time and this time it was terminal. He retired.
Charles Leclerc kept his P1 down the main straight at the race restart, while George Russell was a lot closer to Sergio Perez than the Red Bull was to Monegasque. However, Max Verstappen got the British driver on the way into Turn One and Fernando Alonso passed Lewis Hamilton to take sixth as Hamilton tried to get past Carlos Sainz. Charles led Sergio Perez by 0.561s at the end of that first lap of racing again.
Unfortunately the speed of the RB19 in race pace was difficult to match. Charles Leclerc had a 0.631s lead on Perez at the start of the main straight, but using the DRS, Sergio Perez blasted past the Monegasque into Turn One to take the lead of the Sprint. That was very easy. Charles gradually lost contact with Sergio Perez on following laps: he was 1.1s behind and Max Verstappen was about to have DRS down the main straight as he chased the Ferrari SF-23 car.
A nightmare Sprint for Lando Norris continued as he was forced to stop for new tyres – and it was a slow stop too. He emerged 18th and last of those still running. Lance Stroll passed Alex Albon with DRS into Turn One to take the final point scoring position. Albon tried to fight back into Turn Five but the Aston Martin was too far ahead of the Williams.
Charles Leclerc’s tyres were graining on the final laps, but the Monegasque driver managed to defend against the faster Red Bull car of Max Verstappen, bringing home a valuable second place finish for Scuderia Ferrari, which is clearly still lacking in terms of race pace as compared to the Austrian side. However, a good sign of improvement for the Maranello team.
Sergio Perez therefore won the Azerbaijan GP Sprint! The street-circuit specialist took another victory racing between the walls, while Charles Leclerc held on to keep second place despite Max Verstappen twice getting DRS on the final lap. Carlos Sainz ended in fifth place, behind George Russell.
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