Max Verstappen pleased with Red Bull 1-2: “A really good day for us”
Max Verstappen takes his 5th victory of the season, extending his lead at the top.
Last year, Max Verstappen had torrid luck at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After leading the race for most of it, on lap 46 of the Grand Prix, he had a left-rear tire failure on the straight, which sent him into the wall in a high-speed crash. Earlier, Lance Stroll had also suffered a similar crash.
That time, his teammate Sergio Perez won the race, having overtook Hamilton on the race restart. Verstappen was on for a sure victory, but it did not come to be. This year he has finally won the race, and stepped on the podium in Baku for the first time. This time around, Verstappen had a great, clean race, but was curiously told not to use DRS during the later stages of the race. However, by that time, he was already comfortably in the lead from his teammate Sergio Perez.
During the start of the Grand Prix, Sergio Perez did something similar to last year: He overtook Charles Leclerc going into turn 1 after the Monegasque locked up, as he had done for Lewis Hamilton last year. Later on during the race, Leclerc retired from the race while in the lead, along with his teammate Carlos Sainz.
Also Read: “No fighting,” Sergio Perez instructed by Red Bull to not engage in duel with Max Verstappen
Red Bull build a considerable cushion over Ferrari
Max Verstappen had suffered retirements in 2 of the first 3 races of the season, and currently, Charles Leclerc is going through something similar, having retired in Spain and now Baku.
Even if Red Bull was helped along the way by Leclerc’s retirement, they certainly had better race pace than the Ferrari, and much better straight-line speed, which always helps on a track like Baku. Max Verstappen has taken his 5th victory of the season, and also Red Bull’s 5th victory in the last 5 races.
Speaking after the race, Verstappen was very pleased with the car and the performance shown on the weekend. The Ferrari had seemed the better car in the past two weekends, but there is little doubt that the Red Bull was the better car in Baku.
“Today we had incredible pace in the car. Overall really happy with how the balance of the car was. To have the 1-2 as a team – a really good day for us.“
On being asked how confident he was for the next race in Canada, Verstappen said: “I don’t know. I think every weekend is a bit different. You really have to be precise and you really have to be on it with the little things for the race management as well. So, it can swing around every race weekend.”
With this race, Max Verstappen’s closest rival on the table is now his own teammate: Sergio Perez. Perez is 13 points ahead of Charles Leclerc and 21 points behind Verstappen. This race victory also meant that Verstappen makes his way into the all-time top 10 of race victories by driver, with 25 to his name.
Also Read: “Verstappen is driving in an erratic manner,” George Russell left annoyed by Max Verstappen in Baku
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)