“RBR is fast”, warned Spaniard Carlos Sainz, from Ferrari, still in the fifth lap of the Azerbaijan GP. It was the harbinger of the double that would be won by Red Bull in the eighth stage of the 2022 Formula 1 season, held this Sunday (12), in Baku.
Dutchman Max Verstappen crossed the line in first place, followed by his teammate, Mexican Sergio Pérez, in a race that again ended in disappointment for the Italian team.
After a private duel in practice, awarded pole position by Monegasque Charles Leclerc, Ferrari saw its two drivers leave the race with technical problems in their cars.
“It hurts us. We really need to work on it, so it doesn’t happen again. I really can’t find the right words to describe it. It’s very disappointing,” said Leclerc as he left the circuit.
The Ferrari driver had started first and was leading the race when he suffered an engine failure in his vehicle.
Leclerc has been repeating this script, without being able to convert the good performance of the practices into victories: it was the fourth consecutive pole for the Ferrari driver, without a victory in any of them. He has started in the lead a total of six times this season, but has only won in Bahrain and Australia.
The team left the Azerbaijan track without points, as Carlos Sainz also abandoned the race due to a hydraulic problem in the vehicle. Thus, Red Bull further extended its lead in the constructors’ championship, and ends the weekend with 279 points, compared to 199 for Ferrari and 161 for Mercedes.
With good performance on the track, as had happened in training, Red Bull managed to score the first two places. Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium in Azerbaijan.
This was Verstappen’s 25th victory in F1, a number that already places him among the ten greatest winners in the history of the sport, at the age of 24, ahead of the five-time Argentine champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
The triumph kept a record of the Baku Street Circuit, that of never having been won twice by the same driver. This has been happening since the track debuted in the sport in 2016, with victories by Nico Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Pérez and, now, Verstappen.
“Today we had an incredible pace. Overall, I’m very happy with the balance of the car and the team’s one-two finish. It was a very good day for us,” declared the Dutchman.
The seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, in turn, started in seventh place and ended the race in fourth place. At the end of the race, the English Mercedes driver was voted the best of the day by the public.
After eight disputed stages, Verstappen leads the Drivers’ Championship with 150 points, against 129 for Pérez and 116 for Leclerc, overtaken by the Mexican with this Sunday’s result.
The next stage of the 2022 F1 season is scheduled for next weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.
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