Perez Baku Sprint victory – Red Bull’s Sergio Perez overtook pole-sitter Charles Leclerc to take victory by 4.463 seconds in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix Sprint race on the streets of Baku.
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When the 17-lap 100km Sprint began, pole-sitter Leclerc made an excellent start and lead into turn one, with the Monegasque driver with Perez on his tail, as Verstappen comes under pressure from Mercedes’ George Russell.
Russell pushed Verstappen wide into turn one and the latter just crept through, the same happened later into turn two and finally into turn three the former made his way past the Red Bull into third.
Behind them, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso made his way by Williams’ Alexander Albon for seventh and McLaren’s Lando Norris overtook the other AMR23 entry of Lance Stroll.
An incident at the back saw AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda clip the wall with his right-rear tyre at turn 14 and lost it, which deployed the virtual safety car.
The safety car was then brought out due to being too much debris and carbon fibre scattered from Tsunoda’s shunt and some where the tangle at turn two between Russell and Verstappen took place.
When the race went back to green on lap six, Leclerc who reported a power cut, made a good jump away, but Perez remained on his tail.
Behind the two leaders, Verstappen immediately passed Russell and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz forced Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton wide and allowed Alonso to overtake the Briton.
On lap eight, with DRS assistance on the main-straight< Perez breezed his way by Leclerc into the lead and Verstappen was starting to close in on the Ferrari.
On the ninth tour, Perez set the fastest lap of the Sprint and in clear air, whilst behind them Leclerc has DRS and so did Verstappen.
On the tenth lap, Perez was now a full second in-front of Leclerc, with Verstappen closing in on the second-placed Monegasque driver, as Russell was a distant fourth and Alonso could not find his way past Sainz.
Perez was still in the lead with five tours remaining, as Verstappen could not find his way ahead of Leclerc for second.
A lap later, Leclerc was starting to charge back at the leading Perez as the Ferrari driver made a push.
On the 14th lap, further back Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who passed Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who seemed to be struggling with tyre life.
A lot of action in the midfield as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also made his way passed Hulkenberg along with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri pressured Williams’ Albon for ninth and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries also overtook Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas for 15th.
On the penultimate tour, Leclerc was 1.2 seconds in-front of third-placed Verstappen with the former using his battery well to keep ahead and out of DRS range from the Dutchman.
Perez crossed the line to take the Baku Sprint victory by 4.463 seconds as Leclerc held off Verstappen to take second place.
Mercedes’ Russell took a distant fourth and in-front of Ferrari’s Sainz who came fifth and Alonso who placed sixth.
The other Mercedes F1 W14 entry of Hamilton was seventh and ahead of Aston Martin’s Stroll who finished eighth and Williams’ Albon who ended the Sprint in ninth as Piastri completed the top 10 for McLaren.
Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen placed outside the top 10 in 11th place and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou who was 12th and Alpine’s Gasly who took 13th in the classification.
The aforementioned de Vries, Hulkenberg and Bottas were 14th, 15th and 16th respectively as McLaren’s Norris and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who brought up the rear.
Tsunoda was the only retiree and Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant was unable to compete in the Sprint due to sustaining damage in the earlier Sprint Shootout.
2023 Azerbaijan GP F1 Sprint – The Top Three
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2023 Azerbaijan GP F1 Sprint Winner – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing-Honda-RBPT, RB19 – 8 Points:
“It was good! A lot of pressure on us, our teams, mechanics, drivers so to get away with maximum points was the objective but we know tomorrow is the main race.”
2nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, – 7 Points:
“It confirms a little what we thought, the Red Bull still has the upper hand in the race, but we did a step forward. We are still not where we want to be, but we just need to take the maximum [we can]. I didn’t fight too much with [Perez] as I wanted to protect my tyres, but we were still losing at the end with the degradation.”
3rd Place – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-Honda-RBPT, RB19, – 6 Points:
“I just don’t understand why you need to take so much risk into Lap 1, understeering into my car. It is what it is. There’s a hole in my sidepod, it doesn’t look great.”
Click here to see the full Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2023 Sprint Results Classification: https://www.skysports.com/f1/grandprix/azerbaijan/results
Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
#AzerbaijanGP #SprintShootout: @CharlesLeclerc takes #F1Sprint pole despite crashing.
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