Drama at Baku!

On Friday, it seemed Red Bull would dominate the weekend with a strong Ferrari a bit behind and a struggling Mercedes further back. Then on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton showed why he's a seven-times world champion, driving a difficult Mercedes W12 around Baku, making life a bit harder for the Red Bulls and the Ferrari duo.

During Qualifying we saw four red flags, first it was Lance Stroll, driving his Aston Martin into the T15 barrier. No sooner had the session restarted than Antonio Giovinazzi buried his Alfa in the tires, also without a time. The next driver to bring out the red was Daniel Ricciardo, who locked his left front and slid into the wall at Turn Three in Q2, sentencing himself to 13th on the grid. The final red flag came when Yuki Tsunoda, who did a great job to reach Q3 for the first time, buried his AlphaTauri in the Turn Three tires. A few feet behind him, Carlos Sainz, when seeing Tsunoda's accident, could not turn in and crashed into the barriers trying to avoid the AlphaTauri. Thus ending all opportunities for faster laps. At the end it was Charles Leclerc taking his second Pole Position in a row with Hamilton in second and championship leader Verstappen in third.

On Sunday, the race started with Hamilton passing Leclerc for the lead on lap 2, with Verstappen taking second spot on lap 7 and Perez third a lap later. On Lap 12, Hamilton pitted for hards, but he was held up by Gasly’s AlphaTauri, cruising past in the pit lane, and suffered a 4.6 second stop to emerge fourth. With Red Bull wary of the undercut, Verstappen pitted a lap later for hards and ended up in front thanks to a 1.9 second stop. Perez pitted a lap later but ended up behind Verstappen but ahead of Hamilton.

But on lap 31, Lance Stroll's left rear tire exploded while he was going at full speed on the main straight losing control of his Aston Martin and hitting the barrier hard. He was shaken, but fortunately unhurt. The Safety Car was deployed for a lengthy clean-up of aero parts and shards of carbon-fiber strewn on track.

And then, on lap 47, it was Max Verstappen's left rear tire exploding, again on the main straight and causing a second high speed crash. A Safety Car followed and then a red flag on Lap 48. Everyone came into the pits for a lengthy 35-minute stop while the track was cleaned up. Drivers were allowed to change tires and make any safety repairs deemed necessary, in Hamilton's case, a new front wing was fitted as the old one had a visible hole and cracks. Cars left the pits on lap 49 and a standing start was done on lap 50 of 51.

Upon the restart, Hamilton tried a bold move on Perez into turn 1 but locked up his brakes missing the turn completely and ending up last. Eventually he would finish 15th. Up front, it was Perez winning for the second time in F1. With Sebastian Vettel finishing an unexpected second from 11th on the grid and Pierre Gasly, having held off Leclerc’s numerous attempts to overtake, finished third to leave the pole-sitter fourth.