Sergio Perez managed to take his second win in Azerbaijan with a quick and well-measured performance. While Ferrari looked quick over a single lap, the race pace of the Red Bulls placed them in a league of their own. Click here to read a more detailed account of the race.

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Red Bull vs Red Bull

Max Verstappen had a great start and quickly overtook Charles Leclerc in the first few laps of the race. With the help of DRS, Perez made the overtake effortless as well. This highlighted the impressive race pace Red Bull had in their back pocket.

While Max was in the lead, Perez was closing on him every lap until the team finally called Max in to change his tyres. However, Nyck De Vries’ AlphaTauri stopped on track and brought out the Safety Car as Max entered the pits. This gave Perez a major advantage as he pitted under Safety Car conditions.

Perez managed to maintain P1 through to the end of the race. While Max did close the gap to around 1,5 seconds, the Mexican driver grew the gap to around three seconds by the end of the race.

“It was key to make sure we had good pace, good rhythm and that we pushed in the key moments of the race, that really made the difference today. I had to push quite hard initially to get past Charles, especially at the restart because on the first lap I could see he had good pace and very good mechanical grip. Later on, I was able to make the move early enough and that to me was important. In the end I think it was a really nicely executed race and it’s been a great weekend from the whole team,” said the Mexican driver.

Mercedes Pitstops

Hamilton was under pressure from Alonso from the first second of the opening lap. While he managed to stick behind Sainz for the DRS advantage, this ruined his tyres and opened the door for Alonso to attack. Mercedes brought Hamilton in for new tyres, a lap before the Safety Car could have offered him a cheaper pit stop.

Regardless of this, Hamilton managed to fight back through the pack and even overtake his teammate. The seven-time world champion capitalised on a few mistakes by other drivers and finished in P6. Russell started the race in P11 and worked his way up nicely. While he didn’t have enough pace to keep his teammate behind, Russell did build a massive gap behind him. This was enough to pit again to snatch the fastest lap of the race.

Ferrari’s Impressive Performance

Ferrari had a horrible start to the 2023 Formula 1 season. However, Charles Leclerc stunned fans by putting the Ferrari on pole for both the main race and the sprint race.

Ferrari didn’t have the race pace to maintain P1, but the improvements that have been made over the last few weeks have been massive. The data shows that Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Mercedes are all closely linked in performance, with Ferrari looking like the new contender for P2.

Ferrari’s engine performance has been impressive, but it was in the corners that they gained the most time. While Red Bull dominated the straights, Ferrari closed the gaps in sector two and around every other corner on the track.

McLaren’s Fight Back

McLaren has made a small step up from the last few races. The British team came to Baku with a number of upgrades and managed to snatch some points at the end of the race. Lando Norris was fighting with Haas and Williams for the majority of the race. He managed to pull off a great move in the last few laps to secure P9. Piastri was slightly behind in P11.