Third double of the season for Red Bull, which has taken advantage of Ferrari’s reliability problems to give a blow of authority in both World Cups and drastically extend their advantage. Max Verstappen was the one who took the win in Baku, this time after beating his garage mate, Sergio Pérez, who couldn’t keep up with him. George Russell has completed the podium.
With the temperatures constantly rising and the asphalt becoming more and more abrasive, the starting signal was fired for the eighth Grand Prix of the season. Sergio Pérez made a majestic start and took the lead after beating Charles Leclerc in the first meters. We saw a very clean start, with hardly any changes in position on the rest of the grid. The Mexican from Red Bull began to open a gap, showing the great pace of his RB18B in long runs, while Max Verstappen pressed the Monegasque from Ferrari, but without being able to attack him. Behind, Carlos Sainz lost half a second per lap and moved away from the Top 3 on each lap. Precisely the number ’55’ was going to star in the first abandonment of the test. His F1-75 suffered an electronic problem in the brakes and the Madrid native was forced to stop his car, facing his third DNF of the campaign and reducing, even more if possible, his options for the title.
New Spanish zero
Sainz’s abandonment caused a strategy dance, with Leclerc entering the pits taking advantage of the Virtual Safety Car and the Red Bulls staying on track. The Ferrari one mounted hard tires and, after making them warm up, he began to chain fast lap after fast lap. Just the opposite happened with Checo, who suffered extreme degradation and lost position with his garage mate. Faced with this situation, Red Bull decided to call Guadalajara to the pits. Shortly after he would do the same with Max, which made Leclerc the leader of the testwith less fresh tires, but with more than ten seconds of gap with respect to those of Milton Keynes.
However, the drama was unleashed for Ferrari when on lap 21 the engine of Leclerc’s car began to expel smoke, forcing him to withdraw from the test without palliatives and, therefore, leaving his direct rivals free. Worrying reliability problems for those of the “Cavallino Rampante”. And it is that today up to 4 men with a Ferrari engine said goodbye to Baku with two problems in their power unit. Leclerc’s abandonment catapulted an outstanding George Russell, which showed practically perfect driving throughout the test and rode solidly in third position. Behind them, we witnessed a beautiful battle between Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly. The last VSC benefited that of Mercedes, which entered the pits and mounted new tires, which was enough to easily overcome the Frenchman, which was finally going to be 5th with a great performance. Also noteworthy is the role of Sebastian Vettel, who despite an error in the first part of the race was going to be able to maintain sixth place until the end, just ahead of Fernando Alonso and the McLarens.
The thing is about doublets
The checkered flag left us with a new victory for Max Verstappen, second place and the fastest lap for Pérez and one more podium for Russell, which is consolidated in fourth place in the Championship ahead of Sainz. Baku has left us a little cold because of what happened with the Ferrari men, who have once again missed a pole position, this time due to reliability problems, and who are beginning to give up some worrying ground with respect to Red Bull. We will see if Canada is a shock to them or has just exacerbated their crisis.