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Written by Nina Rogerson
Sergio Perez proves he’s the king of street races once again after taking victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leading his teammate Max Verstappen for a Red Bull 1-2 with Charles Leclerc rounding off the podium.
Image via @F1 on Twitter
Starting from pole, Leclerc lead the race in the early stages but was quickly passed by the Red Bull duo using DRS.
Verstappen led the race with about 1.5 seconds over his teammate Perez for the first 10 laps before Nyck De Vries clipped the wall at Turn 5 and had to retire his AlphaTauri. Verstappen came into the pits just before the safety car was deployed as he was struggling with rear grip.
Image via @f1 on Twitter
The deployment of the safety care meant that Perez, both Ferraris and both Aston Martins were able to pit a lap later than Verstappen under the safety care to fit the hard compound tyres.
Perez led behind the safety car whilst Verstappen had been demoted to third behind Leclerc. However, once the race had been restarted Verstappen was able to pass Leclerc and the Red Bulls soon left the Monegasque to drive a lonely race.
Both Red Bulls were pushing extremely hard in the fight for the lead as they both clipped the wall at Turn 15. Verstappen was having problems with balance but even after he’d gotten these under control, he was unable to put any real pressure on Perez.
Perez crossed the line with a 2.1s lead over his teammate, reducing Verstappen’s championship lead to eight points.
19 seconds behind the Red Bulls, Leclerc rounded off the podium in third place. Fernando Alonso crossed the line in 4th, less than a second behind Leclerc.
Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz crossed the line in fifth after a tough weekend and struggling to feel good in the Ferrari. Sainz did manage to hold off the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the race, with Hamilton bringing it home in 6th.
The other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll finished in 7th just ahead of George Russell in the Mercedes. Russell also picked up an extra point for fastest lap of the race.
Lando Norris and the McLaren moved into the points with a late move on Nico Hulkenberg but Norris eventually finished in 9th after Ocon pitted on the last lap. Yuki Tsunoda rounded off the point finishers in the AlphaTauri.
Image via the-race.com
The midfield pack of Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly competed in a close battle but ultimately all narrowly missed finishing with points.
The last of the finishers were brought up by Esteban Ocon after his last lap pitstop drama. Rookie Logan Sargeant, Nico Hulkenburg and Valterri Bottas took up the last three finishing places with Bottas pitting three times due to problems with his tyres.
The non-finishers consisted of De Vries who brought out the safety care early on, and Zhou Guanyu who later on in the race was forced to pull into the pit lane and retire his care with an unspecified technical issue.
The next round of the season takes place in Miami this weekend! Will one of the Red Bulls take the win or will someone else be at the top to shake it up?
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