Sergio Pérez took first place at the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after surprising the Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, who was not expecting the Mexican’s attack from the inside when the traffic lights went out.
Meanwhile, his Red Bull teammate began to attack the Monegasque, causing Checo to escape and open a gap of more than a second with his rivals, without the possibility of opening the DRS, but the Italian team changed the strategy when the first appeared Virtual Safety Car for the abandonment of one of its single-seaters, that of Carlos Sainz.
This was quickly taken advantage of by Leclerc, who changed medium tires to mount a set of hards , a move that copied much of the grid, except for the Red Bulls, who did not react in time. This caused them to fall behind the Monegasque’s Ferrari after his stops, and that seemed to have sealed the race for them.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t do the virtual safety car stop because of a communication error. And once we wanted to do it, it was a bit late,” Pérez said. “We were a bit unlucky, because that would have made us win the race when we were leading.”
When the test restarted, Verstappen overtook Pérez with the use of DRS : “On the restart, I think the middle tires were too hot, and it is something that we have to understand why it happened, because Max [Verstappen] was much stronger in that stint with the yellow ones”.
“There are many things that we have to review, but second place is still very good for the team,” recognized the Mexican, who climbs to second position in the drivers’ standings after beating Leclerc.
Pérez pitted on lap 17 , but his stop was too slow, a total of 5.7 seconds it took to switch from medium to hard. One lap later, Verstappen did the same and stayed ahead of Guadalajara, although 12 seconds behind the Ferrari that was leading before retirement.
During that moment, Checo Pérez received the order not to duel with Verstappen since the two Red Bulls occupied the first two positions after the withdrawals of the Maranello cars, which meant an important sum of points for the team, a message that the Mexican understood and respected.
“I think it was the right decision by the team, because at that time Max was a little bit further ahead, and it was a good result. On this circuit, anything can happen, so in the end, we managed to get a one-two finish.” .
