Sprint in Baku: Perez restores the hierarchies between Red Bull and Ferrari. Clash between Verstappen and Russell!

 

Eventful start: Leclerc and Perez pull away, but there's a collision between Russell and Verstappen

The start of the Sprint saw almost everyone with sets of medium tyres, anticipating a session in which a careful tyre management would have become necessary (and so it was). Leclerc, making the most out of his fresh set of medium tyres, managed to keep his pole position from the assault by Perez, while Russell's excellent race start put him in contention with Verstappen.

Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Since we know Max very well, we know that he certainly wouldn't have let him go so easily... and in fact the result of their battle was a double contact in turn 2 and in turn 3, with a gash on the left side of Max's RB19 which it made his recovery more complicated.

The Sprint only came to life after the first 5 laps, which saw the neutralization - first with the Virtual Safety Car, then with the Safety Car - due to Tsunoda's accident on the fast stretch out of the Castle section.

High tension restart behind the top four

At that point, behind Verstappen and Russell we witnessed a three-way battle between Sainz (5th at the finish line), Alonso (6th) and Hamilton (7th): it must be said that the three driver-car packages were substantially equivalent, for which to decide their positions at the finish line were only small episodes. Above all, Hamilton's attack on Sainz in turn 1, which by compromising the line of both allowed an always attentive Alonso to overtake his archrival Lewis... and if it hadn't been for a borderline defense by Sainz, the positions gained by the driver from Oviedo would have been even two in just one corner!

Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Top speed with DRS on and low tyre degradation were Perez' weapons

Up front, meanwhile, lap after lap it became increasingly difficult for Charles to contain the comeback of the two Red Bulls, especially Perez's still intact RB19. On lap 7, the poleman's defense capitulated, by virtue of an impressive maximum speed delta, albeit magnified by the possibility for Checo Perez to take advantage of both slipstream effect and DRS. From that moment on, Leclerc fought with his SF-23 to try to stay under 1 second behind the Mexican, in order to be able to activate the DRS down the straights of the Baku Circuit: his strategy did not contemplate an attack to Checo, but getting "dragged" lap after lap while keeping his total race time as low as possible. We have already seen a similar strategy on at least two occasions this year:

  • Alonso against Perez himself in Saudi Arabia, after being overtaken in the early stages;
  • Gasly against Sainz in Australia, a factor that allowed him to remain anchored to the Spanish until the horrendous final of the race - to which it will be better not to return;

Leclerc's forcing, who in all this had a fighting Verstappen 1.0-1.5 s behind him, demanded a lot from his tyres: from lap 13 to lap 17 his laptimes increased dramatically, and at that point it seemed clear that until the checkered flag he would have had to look more in the mirrors than in front.

Race pace held by Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc

Race pace held by Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc

His luck was the damage of Max's Red Bull, which caused him excessive drag especially down the straights (we are talking about a deficit of 0.7s per lap): curiously, we had an idea of what a battle would be like between Red Bull and Ferrari without the abnormal difference in aerodynamic efficiency that currently set the two cars apart.

Race pace held by Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen

Race pace held by Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen

“I had a lot of tyre degradation, we have to find something, in the sense that the car is very aggressive from this point of view. Overall we did a good job today, tomorrow I'll do the same trying to make as few mistakes as possible and maximize everything, then we'll see what we can do: if we manage to win, great. But if the maximum is a 2nd or 3rd place we will have to take the available points"
Charles Leclerc

And so we have arrived at the final classificarion shown above, which rewarded - as in every Sprint this year - the first 8 drivers under the checkered flag with world championship points. Having been a race without any particular twists in the form of retirements, all the points went to the drivers of the top four teams. That was a shame for Albon, 9th at the finish line and author of a great performance: just like Piastri (10th), Alex can be satisfied with the progress of his car - especially starting from the premises of the eve.

What to expect in the race?

The main race could replicate the performance levels seen in the Sprint, which certainly takes away some of the glamor and uncertainty from what the main event should be. But Baku has accustomed us to races without half measures: long "processions" as in 2016, 2019 and 2022, or Grand Prix full of twists as in 2017, 2018 and 2021.

Whatever scenario tomorrow's race will "pigeon" into (personally I believe in another domination from Red Bull), it must be said that what Leclerc showed yesterday and today is a nice diversion from what was seen in the first three races: sometimes talent still makes the difference, regardless of the vehicle.

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