Azerbaijan was quite eventful besides the same general outcome as
previous races. The circuit at Baku, with its trademark ultra long
straight, lends itself to teammate slipstreaming and low downforce, but
not everyone was able to take advantage. Gasley, arguably the biggest
loser of the weekend (Russell's loss of a floor to a loose manhole cover
in FP1 aside) had unfortunate circumstances take him from the top of Q1
to starting from the pitlane for a previous infraction during FP2, only
to not even finish the race. Meanwhile, Bottas, fresh off a bad start
after taking pole in China which lead to his 2nd place finish, got the
job done in his start and took that lead to the checkered flag after
Ferrari didn't execute so well on strategy, losing their typically
strong bet on a safety car. That brings us to the strategy conundrum for
Leclerc (see video below), who crashed in Q2 and baked himself into
starting 8th (and got fresh mediums due to those damaged during the
crash), was that his long-run pace was much better on the mediums than
the field on softs which led to him taking the overall race lead, but
the window in which he could've competed for a podium position passed
while Ferrari's strategists waited for solid gap or a safety car; the
gap passed, the safety car never came and Leclerc ended up on an island
in 5th, behind Verstappen and way ahead of Perez. The silver lining was
that he snagged fastest lap points with a late pitstop onto the softs,
keeping Bottas from taking it. This is important, because this shaved a
point off of what Bottas would've had by the end of the race, one
position ahead of Hamilton. The Racing point boys had a great race,
Perez taking 6th in a very strong field. McLaren took 7th and 8th, Sainz
getting the better of Norris on a great weekend for both drivers; looks
like they're getting a bit more consistent in the mid-field. Kimi took
the final point for Alfa Romeo in 10th. Haas bad luck continues with
Grosjean DNF, Ricciardo too never saw the flag. Gasley and Kvyat round
out the four cars that didn't make the end. Ferrari was fast, but not
fast enough in race, so they'll be looking to rectify this issue once
again in Spain. Merc has managed another 1-2 finish in a row and the
manufacturers championship gap is growing at an incredible rate.
Verstappen continues to play spoiler, he's only one point behind Vettel
through race 4. The Driver's Championship standings are as follows:
Bottas, Hamilton (-1), Vettel (-35), Vertsappen (-36), Leclerc (-40),
Perez (-74). Spain should be another exiting race.
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