Max Verstappen led a Red Bull one-two in the 2022 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the retirements of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, giving Mercedes’ George Russell P3 at Baku.
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Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc lost the lead at the start but regained it when the leading Red Bull of Max Verstappen pitted on Lap 19. One lap later, Leclerc’s race went up in a puff of smoke and he crawled back to the pits to retire. This would be Ferrari’s second retirement of the race as Carlos Sainz stopped with a hydraulic failure on Lap 9.
Leclerc’s DNF left Verstappen ahead of Sergio Perez (who took the fastest lap) in a one-two for Red Bull, with Mercedes driver Russell promoted into the final podium place, having started fifth.
Teammate and Driver of the Day, Lewis Hamilton, started seventh and finished fourth having pitted during the VSC on Lap 10 and the following one on Lap 34, passing Pierre Gasly 10 laps later with the benefit of newer tyres. The AlphaTauri driver finished fifth having started sixth.
Sebastian Vettel took P6 for Aston Martin having begun the race on medium tyres, pitting during the first VSC and finishing the race on hards.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso started 10th but made it up to seventh having begun on medium tyres, going long on his first stint and pitting after 18 laps to finish the race on hard tyres and beat both McLarens to P7.
Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth from 12th, starting on hards to jump Lando Norris (P9). Rounding out the top 10 was Esteban Ocon, who started from 13th on hard tyres and took the final point for Alpine.
Valtteri Bottas missed out on points in P11, the Alfa Romeo driver having begun on hard tyres and, like Ricciardo, pitted during the second VSC of the race.
Alex Albon made it up to P12 for Williams after starting 17th. He finished ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, the AlphaTauri driver dropping from sixth to 13th late on with a DRS issue.
Mick Schumacher took 14th ahead of Nicholas Latifi, 15 seconds worth of penalties leaving him 15th and last.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu was the third retiree of the race, the #24 pulling into the pits on Lap 24. He was joined by Kevin Magnussen, whose stoppage brought out the second VSC of the race, and Lance Stroll, a suspected engine issue stopping the Aston Martin driver three laps from the end.
Mario Isola – Motorsport Director, Pirelli:
In all likelihood, this would have been a one-stop race, but the opportunities presented by the virtual safety cars for pit stops with minimal time loss were too good for several of the teams to ignore. This influenced the timing of the pit stops and therefore the strategy. We still saw seven of the 15 finishers stopping only once, which underlines the durability as well as the performance of the tyres here. With the conditions as they were, on a hot track featuring high speeds, it was clear that the harder compounds were best suited to today’s race: a fact that many of the teams had anticipated by saving more than one set of hard tyres for the Grand Prix.
2022 Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP Race Results
| Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:34:05.941 | 25 | 150 |
| 2. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing Honda | +20.823s | 19 | 129 |
| 3. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +45.995s | 15 | 99 |
| 4. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +71.679s | 12 | 62 |
| 5. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +77.299s | 10 | 16 |
| 6. | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Germany | Aston Martin F1 Team | +84.099s | 8 | 13 |
| 7. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Alpine F1 Team | +88.596s | 6 | 16 |
| 8. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | McLaren Racing | +92.207s | 4 | 15 |
| 9. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +92.556s | 2 | 50 |
| 10. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | +108.184s | 1 | 31 |
| 11. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 40 |
| 12. | 23 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 3 |
| 13. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +1 lap | 0 | 11 |
| 14. | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Germany | Haas F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 15. | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Canada | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 16. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 2 |
| 17. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Denmark | Haas F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 15 |
| 18. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | China | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 1 |
| 19. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | DNF | 0 | 116 |
| 20. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | DNF | 0 | 83 |
2022 Constructor Standings
| Pos | Picture | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Red Bull Racing | 279 | |
| 1. | Scuderia Ferrari | 199 | |
| 3. | Mercedes-AMG F1 Team | 161 | |
| 4. | McLaren Racing | 65 | |
| 5. | Alpine F1 Team | 47 | |
| 6. | Alfa Romeo Racing | 41 | |
| 7. | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 27 | |
| 8. | Haas F1 Team | 15 | |
| 9. | Aston Martin F1 Team | 15 | |
| 10. | Williams Racing | 3 |
Here are the team-by-team highlights:
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