Race weekend recap
A new format for sprint race weekends was agreed, which would take effect from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Friday would see drivers participate in free practice 1 and qualifying for Sunday’s race. Saturday would be all about the sprint: the sprint shoutout was the qualifying session for the sprint race and mandated hard tyres for SQ1, medium tyres for SQ2 and soft tyres for SQ3 meant that some teams may have to prioritise qualifying for the main race.
Limited time in the only free practice session saw our usual trio of Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez. It was the beginning of a bad weekend for Pierre Gasly as his Alpine caught fire while Magnussen suffered a suspected fuel pressure problem.
Friday’s qualifying session saw Charles Leclerc outpace the Red Bulls and claim pole position for Sunday’s race. In this qualifying session we witnessed Leclerc and Verstappen set identical times, as well as Stroll and Piastri. There were two red flags in the session when Gasly and De Vries were both caught out at separate occasions at Turn 3.
Top 10: Leclerc, Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Hamilton, Alonso, Norris, Tsunoda, Stroll, Piastri
Sprint shoutout
In the first part of the sprint shootout Sargeant had a run in with the barriers which ended his session early and disrupted it for others. The damage done to his car could not be repaired before the sprint race, so he did not participate.
Eliminated in SQ1: Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda, Gasly, De Vries
Both Aston Martins were struggling during the sprint shootout with DRS issues but survived and made it to SQ3. Piastri was unlucky and justed missed out in 11th.
Eliminated in SQ2: Piastri, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Magnussen, Sargeant
The inaugural sprint shoutout saw Leclerc take his second pole position of the weekend, really showing his pace against the Red Bulls. The Monegasque driver hit the barriers as he went to improve his time on his final flying lap but managed to keep his pole as neither Red Bull could outdo the Ferrari driver.
Top 10: Leclerc, Perez, Verstappen, Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, Albon, Alonso, Stroll, Norris
Sprint race
Some key points from the sprint race were the coming together of Verstappen and Russell and Perez’s first win of the weekend, showing just why he’s been dubbed “King of the Streets”.
Norris and Bottas were the only two drivers to choose soft tyres for the sprint, this seemed like it could have been a genius move at the start of the sprint but later turned out to be the exact opposite.
Verstappen could be heard over the radio, furious with Russell. Meanwhile, Tsunoda and De Vries also came together, with the Japanese driver losing a wheel when he hit the wall at Turn 13. AlphaTauri sent Tsunoda back out after he trundled back to the pits but a full safety car was then deployed as his damage was severe.
On the restart, Perez didn’t wait too long to get past Leclerc but the Monegasque driver did a good job in keeping Verstappen at bay to hold onto P2. Fernando Alonso finished between Sainz and Hamilton as he was opportunistic after the restart and overtook the seven time world champion. Stroll made a move on Albon towards the end of the sprint, claiming the final point available.
Top 8: Perez, Leclerc, Verstappen, Russell, Sainz, Alonso, Hamilton, Stroll
Race Review
Sergio Perez made it 2/2 wins over the weekend when he saw the chequered flags at the end of Lap 57 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He held his cool when teammate Max Verstappen tried his best to hunt him down and kept a safe distance between them. Though Perez benefitted from the timing of the safety car and Verstappen didn’t, the Mexican made the most of the opportunity to cement his desire for a title charge.
Charles Leclerc claimed Ferrari’s first podium of the season with a P3 finish. Unable to keep up with the pace of the Red Bulls, Leclerc settled for third, finishing over 20 seconds behind them. Sainz was off the pace too, playing catch up to his teammate all weekend as he finished 5th.
Aston Martin will be happy with their weekend. After suffering with DRS issues over the weekend, a 4th and 7th place finish would be a nice chunk of points to reward the team’s hard work. Alonso did try to chase down Leclerc in the latter stages of the race but was unsuccessful in this attempt.
It was a relatively quiet weekend for Mercedes. Hamilton drove a solid race on Sunday, the aim to close in on Sainz but he was unable to perform an overtake. Russell, starting lower than he would’ve liked because of a poor qualifying session on Friday, brought home some points in P8.
McLaren had a positive Azerbaijan GP. Although there is still room for improvement, the team from Woking can be proud of their step forward. The car upgrades saw Norris take P9 and Piastri, who was ill for the majority of the weekend finished P11. Both played the long waiting game behind Ocon and Hulkenberg who pitted late in the race.
Tsunoda completed a very strong race with a points finish in P10. De Vries retired from the race after he crashed into the wall at Turn 5. For Williams, Albon was among the pack that finished close together missing out on points and Sargeant was one of the last of the finishers. In the Haas team, it was similar to Williams; in what was quite an uneventful race, Magnussen was sandwiched between Albon and Gasly while Hulkenberg finished just above Bottas who had a race to forget.
Tune in again next week as we head to Miami for round 5 of the 2023 Formula 1 Season.
The Fastest Sector 