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Luck shone on Lewis Hamilton as he returned to the top of the Formula One drivers’ championship Sunday with victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
With Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari clearly faster than Hamilton and his Mercedes, it took a crash, a mistimed lunge and a puncture to elevate Hamilton to the top spot in Baku.
Vettel led for much of the race, but was stuck in second behind Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas when a crash between the two Red Bulls brought out the safety car.
On the restart, Vettel lunged for the lead but could not keep his car on the racing line at the exit of the next corner and instead lost places. Soon afterward, Bottas’ right-rear tyre picked up a puncture, ending his race and elevating Hamilton to first.
The winner said he had ‘very mixed emotions’, adding: “Valtteri deserved to win, he did an exceptional job and had a faultless drive.
“This was such a crazy and exciting race and I never gave up. I was constantly pushing but it was a real struggle. I feel incredibly grateful to come out with the win.
“You have to take the ups with the downs and I can’t complain that I won. I will take it and hopefully learn from it but Valtteri was very, very unfortunate, a one-two would have been a great result for the team.
“I would not have got by him in the remaining laps if he hadn’t had his tyre blow.
“It looks like Ferrari still has the better car, they outperformed us most of the weekend. We were able to just hold on to them during the race. We definitely have some work to do, but we are in the mix and it’s going to be very close. We have to keep our heads down and keep working.”
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen claimed second place after having dropped to 14th following an early collision, but said he wasn’t satisfied with his drive and he had struggled to get the best out of the car.
Sergio Perez overtook Vettel after his mistake on the restart, and held off the four-time world champion to claim third place. It was his and Force India’s first podium since 2016, and he said: “The last two laps, they were the best two laps of my life.”
The two Red Bulls driven by Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo fought all the race for fourth place. After several dramatic near-misses, they collided on lap 40 when Ricciardo - the winner of the last race in China - ran into the back of Verstappen under braking at the first corner. That sent them both off the track. Both received reprimands from the stewards.
Bottas had been left in the lead when first Hamilton, then Vettel, stopped for fresh tyres. He would have had to stop soon but for the Red Bull crash, which allowed Bottas to pit and keep the lead.
Romain Grosjean crashed under the safety car on lap 42, sliding into the wall while weaving in an attempt to heat up his tyres. That delayed the restart, and when it came Vettel charged down the inside of Bottas but couldn’t slow enough to make the corner and went onto a runoff area.
After a start in cool, windy conditions that made it hard to get enough grip, the safety car was out almost immediately on lap 1 as several cars collided in the middle of the pack.
Sergei Sirotkin ran into the back of Perez, causing contact between several other cars. That in turn left Fernando Alonso limping back to the pits with two punctures and Sirotkin out of the race. The Russian has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next event in Spain.
The drama continued at the next turn, where Raikkonen’s aggressive lunge at Force India’s Esteban Ocon plunged Ocon into the wall and out of the race. Raikkonen needed to pit for a new nose and his chances of a podium finish appeared over.
Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg briefly stormed past both Red Bulls into fourth and fifth, but Sainz lost his spot when he pitted, while Hulkenberg’s race ended with a slide into the wall on lap 11.
Vettel was fourth after failing to retake third spot from Perez.
Sainz climbed back into fifth thanks to the turmoil ahead of him, claiming Renault’s best finish since Vitaly Petrov was fifth in Canada in 2011. Charles Leclerc was a career-best sixth for Sauber.
The McLarens of Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were seventh and ninth, sandwiching Lance Stroll’s Williams.
Tenth place for Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso was the best result by a New Zealander in F1 since Chris Amon took his final career points in Spain in 1976.
Understandably, Bottas was ‘absolutely heartbroken’. “It hurts a lot but this is racing,” he said, “some days are good, some days are bad – and some days are very bad.
“A small piece of debris destroyed my entire weekend. We had a good race until the puncture. The car felt really good and we were fast. I thought I had everything under control on the Safety Car restart, but then suddenly my tyre exploded.
“I didn’t see the debris and I couldn’t feel it until the tyre blew. It was really close the last couple of races, so it’s good that our team won today, but I’m obviously still very disappointed.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff agreed: “That was just a brutal race and probably exactly the kind of Grand Prix that fans want to see, with twists and turns at every point.
“In the garage, it was a real rollercoaster of emotions for the whole team and I am really pleased to see us get our first win of the season with Lewis but equally incredibly disappointed for Valtteri.
“So it’s a bittersweet feeling: fantastic to get the win on the board and to be leading the drivers’ championship, but also disappointed because the quickest guy DNF’d with a puncture – and because we know there is still work ahead of us to improve the pace of the car in what will be a close three-way fight for the rest of the season.”
l Hamilton took his 63rd career victory today – his first in Azerbaijan and of the 2018 season. He (70 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by four points from Vettel (66 points) with Valtteri (40 points) in third.
l Ferrari (114 points) leads the Constructors’ Championship by four points from Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (110 points).
l The next race is the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on May 13.
