Lewis Hamilton on the ropes and Sergio Perez title key - Five talking points from the Azerbaijan GP

Perez, Red Bull, Azerbaijan — Photo: © LAT Images

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Hamilton on the ropes and Perez title key - Five talking points from the Azerbaijan GP

Hamilton made another error during a chaotic race in Baku

Ewan Gale

Monday 7 June 2021 12:55

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The Azerbaijan Grand Prix never fails to amaze us. Chaos returned to the streets of Baku as Sergio Perez took his maiden F1 win with Red Bull after a highly dramatic end to the race.

It all looked so good for Max Verstappen before a high-speed tyre failure robbed him of victory but Mercedes had an even worse weekend to digest ahead of the French Grand Prix in two weeks' time.

With a mixed-up podium with Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly joining Perez, here are five things we learned in the land of fire.

Perez the key to championship destination

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How long has Red Bull waited for a second driver to pull their socks up and perform? Perez has shown intermittent glimpses of the form that prompted the team to take a punt on him this season but at the weekend was where it seemingly clicked.

The Mexican had said it would take five races at the team to settle - lo and behold in race six he picks up a race victory.

It would be easy for critics to suggest he has won when others have suffered from misfortune but Perez's pace across the weekend cannot be overlooked.

In fact, he was almost guaranteed to overcut both Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton during the pit stop phase had he not overshot his pit box.

Also, in recent years, Red Bull hasn't had the second car to mop up when things go wrong. It is why such shock results, such as Perez himself in Sakhir last year, present themselves.

With Hamilton and Verstappen locked into such a tight title battle, Perez's ability to mix it with the top two and disrupt Hamilton's progress will be the key that could give his team-mate an edge.

Hamilton on the ropes as Red Bull turns the screw

His race may have come down to an accidental flick of a switch known as 'brake magic', but Hamilton's lock-up into turn one at the start of the two-lap sprint to the finish will send alarm bells ringing throughout the paddock.

Credit must be given that the indefatigable seven-time champion had battled back from a disastrous Friday to even be in the mix on Sunday afternoon.

But the mistake into turn one marked the second error the usually unflappable Hamilton has made in racing situations this year, only this time around he didn't have a red flag to promote him up the order as happened at Imola.

Red Bull's pace is so strong and errors will be costly in Hamilton's bid for a record eighth crown. He simply has to eradicate them quickly.

Old guard hit form in style

Three names to be impressed with in Baku will take you back a few years. Vettel was quite magnificent in his performance to finish second, with some fantastic racecraft on show as he worked his way up the order.

Something clicked for the German across the two street races in Monaco and Azerbaijan and hopefully, the momentum gathered will kickstart his season and even a second wind in his career.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, rolled back the years with some scintillating overtaking in the final two laps to rise from 10th to sixth after the late red-flag period.

His move on Yuki Tsunoda around the outside of turn five was a highlight as the Spaniard picked up the best result of his comeback year.

As for Kimi Raikkonen, he plotted his way through the carnage to pick up his first points of the season for Alfa Romeo, further edging the team clear of Williams and Haas at the foot of the table.

Haas take important 13th place

It may seem trivial at this point of the season but Haas and rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin took what could turn out to be a significant result in Baku.

Schumacher claiming 13th and Mazepin 14th ensured Haas jumped above Williams in the constructors' championship courtesy of their best finishing position.

Bearing in mind the Banbury-based American outfit has made next to no development to the VF-21 then the result is staggering.

Mechanical gremlins thwarted George Russell's ability to finish well in Baku whilst a calamitous radio mix-up saw Latifi left out on track whilst the rest of the field travelled through the pits under the safety car, with the subsequent penalty taking him out of contention.

The difference between ninth and 10th is massive for a team such as Haas and the prize money will no doubt help the squad operate closer to the budget cap limit.

Pirelli treading on thin ice

Debris may have been the initial blame for the two horrific tyre failures on Sunday, but the fact Red Bull's Jonathan Wheatley had to radio FIA race director Michael Masi to request a red flag on safety grounds because the team had "zero warning" of a failure is a cause for worry.

Just since the start of the 2020 season, there has been a spate of tyre delaminations, with multiple cars suffering at last year's British Grand Prix and Verstappen being denied a podium at Imola in November.

The 200mph failures at Baku, though, were nothing short of scary, the type that makes you take a step back when watching in your living room.

Safety is, of course, paramount in the sport and the frequency of tyre problems in recent times is unacceptable, cuts from debris or otherwise. Luckily at Baku, nobody was hurt.