Sergio Perez closes gap on world championship leader Max Verstappen to six points with superb drive at Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
It was all Sergio Perez over the weekend as he won the Sprint Race Saturday then became the first ever driver to win multiple Azerbaijan Grands Prix, holding off team mate Max Verstappen to back up his Sprint victory from 24 hours previously. But according to Perez himself, he was lucky to make it to the race end…
Starting P3 on the grid, Perez followed Verstappen past pole-sitter Charles Leclerc early on in the race, before staying on the tail of Verstappen as the Red Bull pair flexed their muscles and passed the Ferrari and never looked back enroute to yet another 1-2 finish for Red Bull Racing this season.
However, Perez was then a major beneficiary of a Safety Car brought out to recover the car of Nyck de Vries, Perez able to pit under the Safety Car, unlike Verstappen who’d boxed just before.
With Perez emerging from his stop in P1, the Mexican then drove an assured race to hold off Verstappen by 2.137s at the checkered flag, securing Red Bull’s third one-two of the season.
“It really worked out today for us,” said a delighted Perez after claiming his sixth career victory, and his second this year after Saudi Arabia. “We managed to stay in the DRS [range], and we managed to keep the pressure on Max. I think we had better [degradation] on that first stint. It has been an unbelievable weekend, I am super pleased and I cannot say more about the Team, it has been a tremendous day for us and I am so proud of everyone. I want to say a big thanks to Thibaut, he is one of my mechanics who is at home for personal reasons, but he is still a very big part of our Team. The Team enjoy calling me the King of the Streets, I am super happy for them all. They have been tremendous all weekend, from the sprint race yesterday through to the way we executed the race today, it was perfect. I think today we were the fastest car on track and regardless of the safety car we would have won the race. I am definitely in the fight for the title, not just because of Baku, I believe I can be very good anywhere this season and now I am just thinking of Miami. There are a lot of races coming up and we must make sure we are on it.”
“Overall it was quite a good race,” said Verstappen post race. “Of course, I was a bit unlucky with the safety car call, but I think in that second stint both of us were pushing flat out. We used every centimeter on that track and touched a few walls! It was a good Team result and there were a lot of learnings from this weekend to take forward to the rest of the season. We bought it home and a 1-2 for the Team was ideal, Checo had a great race and did very well today. I’m already looking forward to Miami and seeing what we can do there.”
Despite having taken a stunning pole on Friday – and on Saturday for the Sprint – Leclerc was never expected to be able to compete with the Red Bulls on Sunday, and produced a strong drive to keep Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso behind him to claim a first podium of the season.
The victory reignites Perez’s hopes of denying Verstappen a third successive drivers’ title, with the dominant RB19 appearing to be in league of its own in 2023, with the pair having now claimed two victories apiece across the first four races of the season.
Aside from being the first ever driver to win multiple Grands Prix in Baku, after his 2021 victory, Perez also claimed 33 out of a possible 34 points across the weekend – including eight for his Sprint win – and he closes to within six points of Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, as he now prepares to head to Florida for next week’s Miami Grand Prix.
Perez picked off Leclerc and never looked back #AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/OmVEpIFFts
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 30, 2023
