(Baku) Sergio Pérez won Saturday’s sprint race at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, adding another victory to the Red Bull team’s record in 2023 while team-mate Max Verstappen finished third, in a damaged car, behind Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari.
Leclerc had started the sprint race in first place – which will also be the case on Sunday in the main event – but was passed just before the halfway point of the 17-lap event, on the long stretch by the sea. The Mexican driver rode to victory, which allowed him to reduce his deficit by two points over Verstappen, the overall leader, to 13 points.
Leclerc held on to second as Verstappen closed on him on the final lap, and he gave Ferrari a first podium in 2023, after a sluggish start to the season.
The Red Bull team informed Verstappen by radio that he had damage to the floor of the car following contact with George Russell at the start of the race, and that a hole was visible in his left side pod. Verstappen lost third place in the incident, then regained it in a safety car restart.
Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Quebecer Lance Stroll, both Aston Martin drivers, finished the race sixth and eighth respectively.
Red Bull won the first three events of the season. Verstappen triumphed in Bahrain and Australia while Perez won the second leg of the calendar, in Saudi Arabia.
For the first time, there was an abbreviated qualifying session ahead of the sprint race on Saturday, in addition to the regular qualifying session held on Friday in preparation for the main race on Sunday.
Leclerc earned the lead in each of the two qualifying sessions, despite hitting the wall towards the end of Saturday’s qualifying
It is the first time that a sprint race in F1 has not been used to establish the starting grid for the main race.
This initiative aims to encourage drivers to take more risks to get sprint points.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be on the Formula 1 calendar for three more years, until 2026, the discipline’s promoter announced on Saturday, on the sidelines of the race this weekend.
Formula 1 has taken its habits on the shores of the Caspian Sea since 2016 with an urban circuit in the heart of Baku, a clever mix of speed (over 350 km/h at the end of a 2 km straight line) and driving in the old town.
“It’s an incredible circuit that always provides plenty of spectacle and has hosted some of the most exciting races in recent history,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement.
In the streets of the Azerbaijani capital, the outcome is often unpredictable since six different winners have won in six contested races.
