PEREZ WINS THE AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX
F1 came to Baku for the seventh running of the Grand Prix. In a race which usually brings with it high drama and great battles up and down the grid - however this year was one which had none of that. It was Perez who once taking the lead dominated and managed his advantage over Verstappen to win the race. Ferrari will be happy as Leclerc managed a podium with a third placed finish and thats Ferrari's first podium of the year.
It was Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) who lead into turn one ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) with Sergio Perez (Red Bull) in third and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) in fourth.
It didn't take long for the Red Bull of Verstappen to fly past the Ferrari of Leclerc with the DRS and the pure straight line speed of the Red Bull it was a very easy overtake for the lead.
Just two laps later on lap six it got worse for Leclerc as he continued to drop down as Perez passed him for second place.
The only real drama of the race was on lap ten when the Alpha Tauri of Nyck De Vries clipped the wall going into the corner which snapped his front steering arc which put out the yellow flags. Verstappen is pitted by the team as Perez carries on, this dropped Verstappen down to seventh.
The next lap its realised that De Vries is not going anywhere so the Safety Car is deployed for the stranded Alpha Tauri. This plays into Perez's hands as he hadn't pitted so could pit the following lap and keep the lead because everyone directly behind him pits as well. The top three is now Perez, Leclerc and Verstappen in third.
On lap 14 the Safety Car is in and the racing resumes - Perez keeps the lead and Verstappen re-passes Leclerc for second and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) passes Sainz for fourth.
Lap 37: Zhou is retired from the race.
The next race is the Miami Grand Prix.
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