Sergio Perez closes gap on world championship leader Max Verstappen to six points with superb drive at Azerbaijan Grand Prix; pole-sitter Charles Leclerc takes third for Ferrari; watch the Miami GP next weekend on Sky Sports F1
Sunday 30 April 2023 16:10, UK
Sergio Perez produced a flawless drive to beat Max Verstappen to victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after an intense battle between the Red Bull team-mates.
After both Red Bulls made light work of passing the Ferrari of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc - who finished third - in the opening stages, an early Safety Car caused by Nyck de Vries crashing enabled Perez to leapfrog Verstappen as both made pit stops.
Red Bull pitted Verstappen, who was under heavy pressure from Perez, while De Vries was stranded on the track, but the Safety Car being sent out moments later meant Perez gained timed - and the lead - when he stopped a lap later.
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.
Perez, who also won Saturday's Sprint as Formula 1 debuted its new format for 2023, now trails Verstappen by just six points going into next weekend's Miami Grand Prix.
"It really worked out today for us," Perez said. "We managed to stay in the DRS train and keep the pressure on Max.
"I think it was very close between us, we pushed to the maximum, we both clipped the wall a few times."
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.
Carlos Sainz completed an improved weekend for Ferrari by finishing fifth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton who recovered from losing several places when pitting before the early Safety Car to take sixth.
Lance Stroll got away with making significant contact with the wall with his Aston Martin to take seventh ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, whose early progress was ruined by a poor restart after the Safety Car.
Lando Norris, who like Hamilton lost places after pitting early, fought back to finish ninth for McLaren, while Yuki Tsunoda finished in the points for a second successive race by taking 10th for AlphaTauri.
Azerbaijan GP Race Result
1) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
4) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
6) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
7) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
8) George Russell, Mercedes
9) Lando Norris, McLaren
10) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
Despite Leclerc starting on pole, the feeling before the race was that the real battle would be between the Red Bulls lining up behind him.
That did not take long to come to fruition, with Verstappen easing past the Ferrari at the end of the third lap once Red Bull's dominant DRS was unleashed.
Perez followed his team-mate through at the same spot two laps later, before setting about chasing down Verstappen.
The Mexican's street-circuit pedigree was on display as he immediately closed within a second of Verstappen, and was right on his team-mate's rear wing when De Vries' incident occurred on lap 10.
The AlphaTauri struck the inside wall as he took on Turn 5 and damage to his left-front tyre left him stranded at Turn 6.
With yellow flags waving, Red Bull called Verstappen in, but no sooner had he emerged from the pits, the Safety Car was sent out, benefitting all the cars that had yet to stop.
Perez would come out in the lead after his stop a lap later, while Leclerc also got back in front of Verstappen, providing the Mexican with an extra cushion at the rolling restart.
It would not last long, as Verstappen immediately got past Leclerc, but Perez quickly opened up a second gap to move out of DRS range, and then maintained the advantage for the rest of the race.
"The Safety Car was a bit unlucky, then I have to push again," Verstappen said.
"I have try to stay very close to try and get into the DRS. I think the tyres were overheating a bit because of that, trying to follow."
There was a momentary scare as Perez hit the wall at Turn 15 on the 34th circuit of the 51-lap contest, but he escaped any damage and was able to comfortably bring the RB19 home with a two-second lead.
Perez's victory makes him the first driver to win twice at the Baku City Circuit in F1, while also furthering his reputation around street tracks, where five of his six wins in the sport have now come.
While the rest of the action was somewhat secondary as the key battle played out up front between the Red Bulls, Leclerc backed up his second in Saturday's Sprint to claim a first podium of the season for Ferrari.
Having come into the season expecting to challenge Red Bull and Verstappen for titles, Ferrari endured a torrid start to the campaign in the first three races, with Leclerc retiring in two of them.
While their race pace - along with the rest of the field - remains some way off Red Bull's, they will take encouragement and hope significant upgrades planned for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola later this month can move them closer to contention.
Alonso did his best to make it four podiums in as many races for 2023's surprise package Aston Martin, as he pressured Hamilton into an early pit stop before passing Sainz at the restart to gain two places from his starting position.
Hamilton recovered well after a slow start to pass Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon having dropped to 10th at the restart, before then making moves on team-mate Russell and Stroll to take sixth.
Ocon, who started from the pit-lane after breaching parc ferme by changing his set-up on Saturday, was involved in a near-disastrous accident in the pit-lane in the closing stages.
Alpine somewhat strangely waited until the final lap of the race to bring Ocon in for a mandatory change of tyres, but race organisers had not realised and allowed photographers to gather at the start of the pit-lane where they were awaiting the top three.
Thankfully, the photographers managed to get out of Ocon's way at the last moment, avoiding a potentially terrible accident.
Despite the near-miss, serious questions will be asked as to how such a dangerous situation was allowed to occur.
There is only a very short wait for the 2023 season to continue, with Formula 1 returning to Miami as the city hosts a race for the second time after debuting on the calendar last year.
The action is all live on Sky Sports F1 from May 5-7, with the intense title battle between Red Bull team-mates Verstappen and Perez set to continue.
In the short time between now and then, we will be bringing you all the latest F1 news via the Sky Sports app and website.
