With half a dozen laps remaining at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Max Verstappen looked on track to claim his third win of the year and to match title rival Lewis Hamilton with three wins so far this season.
But it was cruelly disputed due to a puncture and left the race without points. He didn’t even get the bonus point for the fastest lap, even though he set the fastest time in the race because he didn’t finish in the top 10.
When the race restarted for a two-lap sprint to the finish line, Hamilton was on the verge of maximizing the damage to the Red Bull driver’s title hopes when he lined up to overtake Sergio Perez in the lead. But the Mercedes driver slipped far in turn one and the entire field overtook him, so that he too ended the day without points.
Perez took the second win of his career and joined the exclusive club of drivers who have won more than one Grand Prix but have never started a race from pole position. Eddie Irvine and Bruce McLaren lead this group with four wins and zero poles, although Verstappen took five wins before taking his first pole position.
Poll: rate the race – Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021Hamilton’s death meant he reached the checkered flag in 16th, although he was upgraded one place thanks to Nicholas Latifi’s penalty. Even so, this was his worst result in 12 years when he finished 18th at the Nürburgring.
Only once did Hamilton cross the finish line in a lower position than on Sunday. He finished 16th in his home race, also in 2009 with McLaren’s uncompetitive MP4-24. He was ranked 19th at the European Grand Prix in 2012, but didn’t start because he got tangled up with Pastor Maldonado.
With Valtteri Bottas also out of the points in twelfth, the 55-time series of consecutive points for Mercedes ended. This is the fourth best in F1 history, tied with Ferrari, who also held the record with 81 in a row from 2010 to 2014. Mercedes’ best time is 62, from Brazil 2012 to Hamilton and Nico Rosberg competing in the first round in Spain in 2016.
Mercedes only scored seven points in the last two races. This is the worst run since Hamilton signed for them after the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix, when the team remained pointless for the next five races and then scored six points in the season finale in Brazil.
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The Baku City Circuit has cemented its reputation for variability. None of the three drivers on the podium was on the podium in the previous five races.
Even more remarkable is that on the track in Azerbaijan, a different driver has won each of the five previous World Championship races, the pole position was taken and the fastest lap was driven:
Perez brought some excellent results at this track to his former team, previously known as Racing Point, including third places in 2016 and 2018. His successor followed him home in second, taking the first podium for the new identity of the Teams as Aston Martin. The brand did not reach a podium during its original F1 incarnation in 1959-60.
Vettel took Aston Martin’s first podium. With Gasly in third place on the grid, this was the second race in a row in which no works Mercedes driver was on the podium. This has never been seen in the V6 hybrid turbo era; They will have to return to the last two races with V8s for the last time at the end of 2013.
Perez also managed a first under the current engine rules. No other driver has won races with more than one team or engine supplier during this period. He previously won the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in a Racing Point Mercedes.
This was the third time in six laps that Verstappen led more than half of the race without a win. He did the same in Bahrain and Spain. It is noteworthy that if he had led one more lap on Sunday, he would have led three times as many laps this year as Hamilton this year – but the Mercedes driver has one more victory this year. Verstappen led two thirds of all laps driven in 2021, but only won a third of the races.
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Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021
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