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Dominant Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez in a class of their own in Baku
It's another 1-2 result for Oracle Red Bull Racing, this time at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where the reigning world champion finally put an unwanted hoodoo in the rear-view mirror.
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Max Verstappen's time at Oracle Red Bull Racing started at a rush and has barely abated since, but the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been a curious outlier on his otherwise glittering résumé. The Dutchman's fourth race for the team was Baku's debut on the world championship calendar in 2016 and since then he'd never even seen the view from any step on the podium, let alone the top one. That was until Sunday, when he put that right in the most emphatic fashion.
The moment: Verstappen takes the lead from Pérez on Lap 15
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
For a race that's routinely been one of the most manic during the years it has been on the schedule, Sunday's eighth round of the 2022 season was far tamer, but no less enjoyable if you were in Red Bull Racing blue. Pérez finished second, giving the team its third 1-2 result in the past five Grands Prix – after it waited five years between Malaysia 2016 and Emilia Romagna 2022 to annex the top two steps on the rostrum.
A maximum haul of 44 points – 25 for Verstappen for the victory, 19 for Pérez for second place and the fastest lap of the race (a 1m 46.046s effort on Lap 36 of 51) saw the team stretch its advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship to 80 points, with Verstappen leading team-mate Pérez atop the Drivers' Standings, 150 points to 129.
With Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failing to finish, Mercedes man George Russell was again there to pick up whatever crumbs fell from the table of the season's two strongest teams with a third-place result. It was the Briton's third podium of the year and a result that saw him retain fourth in the Drivers' Standings.
Here's how an afternoon that started with a struggle and finished spraying champagne played out for Verstappen in Baku.
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Verstappen cruising to victory looked unlikely on Saturday; team-mate Pérez had his measure throughout the three practice sessions and qualifying, and the Dutchman was patient in the early stages after Checo had made a brilliant getaway off the grid to ease past pole-sitter Leclerc into the first corner.
Leclerc was the first of the leading trio to pit, on Lap 10, and Verstappen used his fresher tyres to pounce. Pérez requested not to fight his team-mate on Lap 15, as Verstappen unlocked his prodigious pace. He then pitted three laps later to take the fight to Leclerc, but it was a fight that never eventuated, as the Ferrari driver's engine expired just two laps later, gifting Verstappen an advantage he wasn't about to let go of.
It was just 12 months ago that a late-race puncture in Baku saw Verstappen retire from a dominant lead and you could have excused him for feeling every bump and hearing noises that weren't there as the laps counted down. A late-race virtual safety car to retrieve the broken-down Haas of Kevin Magnussen with 17 laps remaining saw him pit to ensure he'd have fresh rubber for the run to the chequered flag and, after 51 laps, his Baku hoodoo was finally buried.
The podium was Verstappen's 66th with the team, surpassing Sebastian Vettel's 65 for the most by a Red Bull Racing driver. All six race finishes this year have been podiums, his five victories allied to a third-place last time out in Monaco.
The Dutchman won his 5th race in 8 starts this season
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
"You can never make up what you lost last year, but I think today we had an incredible pace in the car," Verstappen grinned after he became the sixth different winner in the six races held at the Baku City Circuit.
"We could really look after the tyres and chip away at it, and then pass for the lead. We were a tiny bit lucky with the (Leclerc) retirement, but our car was really quick today, so I could have closed that gap. Then, of course, you have a race on your hands. Overall, I was really happy with how the balance of the car was today. To have a 1-2 for the team as well, it's a really good day for us."
Oracle Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner was, understandably, elated and relieved with the result after last year's bitter finish in Baku.
"With that eight or nine-lap tyre advantage over Charles and the pace we had, I think we would have been in good shape," Horner said, when asked about the Verstappen-Leclerc on-track showdown that never came to fruition.
"We didn't get to see that, unlucky for Ferrari today and Charles, but a great day for our boys, who drove brilliantly. Max just seemed to have a little less degradation in the car today than Checo did. They've been very fair with each other. With the pace advantage we had over Mercedes, it was case of just managing the pace and bringing the cars home."
Checo's love affair with Baku continues
When you're in your 12th F1 season, firsts are few and far between, but Baku represented one for Pérez, who arrived in Azerbaijan as both the winner of the most recent race (Monaco) and the winner of the most recent race at that weekend's track (Baku) for the first time.
Leclerc's sublime lap late in qualifying saw the Mexican a distant 0.282s behind the pole-sitter, but that disappointment was instantly avenged when the lights went out. He out-dragged the Ferrari to the first turn and cleared off to a two-second lead in just four laps.
It looked like a new high-water mark was in the offing at a track nestled beside the Caspian Sea, but that early push may have contributed to Pérez's pain later on, Verstappen catching and then passing him for the lead after Leclerc's retirement.
Still, second place was the Mexican's fourth podium in six Baku starts, his third rostrum appearance in a row and a fifth for the season (matching his total from 2021). He also jumped to second in the Drivers' Standings for the first time in his career.
Another podium continued Pérez's brilliant run of form
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
"Unfortunately we missed the virtual safety car stop (on Lap 9 when Sainz retired), a miscommunication... It was a bit too late, so we were a bit unlucky there," he said afterwards.
"At the restart I had too much degradation on the medium tyre, the deg was too high for me and that's something we have to understand what happened. Certainly Max was a lot stronger today on that medium stint, so a lot of things we have to review from today. But still, at the end of the day we managed to do a 1-2, so that's a good team result."
Horner intimated Pérez may have paid the price for almost being too fast at the start, but was again impressed by his career-best run of form extending.
"He was magic yesterday and had a great start in the race," Horner said of Pérez. "He went away very quickly from the field, but started to get into rear tyre graining earlier than the cars behind, so maybe we emphasised a little too much qualifying on his side of the garage. Checo's been driving brilliantly these last few races, you can see his confidence is there."
Gasly surges to stop slide
Gasly, as he did in Monaco, had prodigious pace all weekend – and this time was able to make it pay big on race day. A season-best fifth place saw him score more points in one race (10) than he had in the previous seven (six). The Frenchman was sixth on the grid, splitting Mercedes pair Russell and Lewis Hamilton, and ran as high as fourth place before having to settle for fifth, a late-race decision by the team to not stop for fresh tyres under the Magnussen-caused virtual safety car was not one employed by most of his rivals.
Gasly's pace was rewarded with a fine 5th place
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Tsunoda looked set to join his team-mate in the points and was sixth in sight of the flag, but a partially-broken Drag Reduction System (DRS) flap on his rear wing saw an unscheduled late pit stop, some hasty repairs with some gaffer tape and an unfortunate 13th-place result.
Tides turn for Ferrari and champion pair
Leclerc's second retirement in the past three races saw him earn a share of an unwanted slice of F1 history; the last driver to take four successive poles yet not win any of those races was Juan Pablo Montoya for Williams way back in 2002.
Leclerc has started six of the eight races this year from pole, but a 46-point lead over Verstappen after he won in round three in Australia has become a 34-point deficit just five races later.
Elsewhere, Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel had his best showing of the season with sixth place at the track where he took his first podium for the team 12 months ago, while another multiple world champion, Alpine's Fernando Alonso, also enjoyed a best result of 2022 with seventh place.
Worth it in the long run
It's a back-to-back set of races that makes little sense geographically, but one that'll be made easier to stomach by the ardent Canadian fans and the first visit of the sport to the Île Notre-Dame since 2019.
Anticipation will be high and the stakes even higher for the semi-permanent street track that sees drivers thread their way between the walls on a 14-corner, 4.3km ribbon of tarmac. Risk and reward go hand-in-hand at a circuit that can catch out the best of the best. There's a reason the concrete barrier on the outside of the final corner is known as the 'Wall of Champions', a who's who of F1 ending races and practice sessions with broken cars and damaged pride over the years.
Oracle Red Bull Racing has won this Grand Prix twice (Vettel in 2013 and Daniel Ricciardo the following year), while Verstappen and Pérez both have Montreal trophies to their names after third-place finishes (Max in 2018, where he also set fastest lap), and Checo way back in 2012 for Sauber.
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