Baku (Azerbaijan), April 30 (IANS) Red Bull driver Sergio Perez doubled up on the streets of Baku by adding to his Sprint race triumph with victory in the drama-filled Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, leading Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc home to boost his title push.
After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Verstappen of the Netherlands was leading the 2003 Driver Standings with 93 points with Mexico’s Perez reducing the margin to 87 points. Former World Champion Fernando Alonso of Spain is in third position with 60 points while Multiple-time World Driver’s Champion Lewis Hamilton is a distant fourth with 48 points.
On Sunday, the day belonged to the two Red Bull drivers as they finished 1-2 on the podium.
Verstappen and Perez overhauled pole-sitter Leclerc in the early stages and proceeded to trade fastest lap times at the head of the field, with the defining moment of the race coming when a Safety Car was deployed on either side of the Red Bull drivers pitting.
With Verstappen pitting under yellow flags, brought out when Nyck de Vries stopped on track, and Perez coming in under a Safety Car that followed, the Mexican cleared his teammate and rejoined the action in the lead.
Verstappen fell to third, meaning he had to overtake Leclerc for a second time. While that was a formality when the race resumed, he could not make inroads on Perez during the run to the chequered flag and had to settle for second.
Leclerc held off a late charge from Fernando Alonso to take third, meaning the two-time champion’s 2023 podium run came to an end – though fourth still represented another strong haul of points for the Aston Martin driver.
Carlos Sainz crossed the line fifth in the other Ferrari, fending off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in the closing stages, with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and Silver Arrow of George Russell picking up minor points after a close call in the pits early on.
Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg rose from the pit lane to hold points-paying positions for much of the race, as they extended their first stints on hard tyres, but late mandatory pit stops meant they were banking on more Safety Car drama that never arrived.
McLaren’s Lando Norris moved into the points with a late move on Hulkenberg, before gaining another spot when Ocon pitted, while Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10 to salvage a result for AlphaTauri.
With an action-packed standalone Sprint behind them, teams regrouped, debriefed and got ready for Sunday’s 51-lap main event, using the grid that had been set during Friday evening’s qualifying session – Leclerc taking the pole from Verstappen and Perez.
Two drivers missing from the grid were Ocon and Hulkenberg, whose respective Alpine and Haas teams made suspension set-up changes under parc ferme conditions, sending them both to the pit lane for the start of the race.
Most of the field chose medium tyres for their opening stints, with only De Vries, Ocon and Hulkenberg taking a different strategic route on hards – degradation on the soft rubber proving to be particularly high across Saturday’s 17-lap, 100-kilometre Sprint.
As the lights went out, pole-sitter Leclerc made a smooth getaway to hold his lead into Turn 1, with Red Bull pair Verstappen and Perez slotting into second and third, followed by Sainz, Hamilton and Alonso.
Further back, the Turn 2 bottleneck led to Piastri – doing his best to shake off a bout of food poisoning this weekend – getting caught in an Albon/Magnussen sandwich, with Bottas also delayed at the exit and losing a handful of places.
–IANS
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