Sergio Perez won in Baku after a tyre blowout for Max Verstappen, a red-flag restart and a costly brake error by Lewis Hamilton, with Vettel second and Gasly third.
Sergio Perez won the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly. Verstappen retired after a tyre failure, and Hamilton dropped to last after a brake-mode error at the restart. The race was run over 51 laps and was the sixth round of the 2021 championship.
Sergio Perez took the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku after a race shaped by a tyre blowout for championship contender Max Verstappen, a red-flag restart and a costly brake error from Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel took second for Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly was third for AlphaTauri. It was Perez's second Grand Prix win and his first for Red Bull Racing.
What was the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
Held on 6 June 2021 in Baku, the race was round six of the championship. It was the fourth running of the Azerbaijan race, and only the fifth Grand Prix the country had hosted, following the 2016 European Grand Prix.
The 51-lap race took place on a 6.003 kilometre (3.730 mi) street course. Mercedes and Red Bull were widely seen as the favourites, and the teams fielded their regular drivers with no stand-ins for the weekend.
Pirelli supplied three compounds for the event: C3, C4 and C5, which the teams knew as hard, medium and soft. Each team had to balance tyre life against the abrasive, high-speed street surface.
A tyre blowout, a red flag and a brake-mode error turned Baku into a race that rewarded the calm rather than the fast.
What was the championship picture before Baku?
Verstappen had won at Monaco the previous time out and arrived in Baku with a four-point lead over Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship. Red Bull led Mercedes by a single point in the Constructors' Championship. That lead was narrow enough that a single poor race could change it.
Those small margins made every result important, and the weekend's outcome was watched closely. A single poor race could change the order. Each driver's result carried more weight than usual. A single retirement or a mistake at the restart could move a driver or a team from the top of the standings, which is why the weekend drew such close attention.
How did practice go in Baku?
In the first session on 4 June, Verstappen set the pace, ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. Hamilton was seventh and Valtteri Bottas tenth, a quiet start for Mercedes. Leclerc struck the barrier at turn 15 and brought out a yellow flag, while Nicholas Latifi's Williams engine failed and caused a red flag.
In the second session Perez came out on top, with Verstappen and Sainz behind him. Hamilton finished 11th and Bottas 15th, leaving the Mercedes pair without the pace they needed.
How did qualifying produce so many red flags?
Stoppages soon became the story of the day, as qualifying opened at 16:00 on 5 June. Stroll and Giovinazzi, both in Q1, Ricciardo in Q2, and Tsunoda and Sainz in Q3 all crashed. Those incidents produced four red flags, equalling the record for a single qualifying session set at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Russell swapped his drivetrain before going out for a quick lap, and the stoppages gave his crew spare time in the garage. Leclerc took pole for the second race running, with Hamilton and Verstappen on the front row behind him.
Norris was docked three grid slots and handed three penalty points on his Super Licence after mishandling the red flag procedure. Fernando Alonso, who qualified ninth, argued that drivers who caused red flags kept their grid positions and went unpunished. Bottas finished tenth, eight places behind Hamilton, and said something was wrong with his car.
How did the race begin?
Before the lights went out the field paused for a moment of silence for former FIA chief Max Mosley and McLaren shareholder Mansour Ojjeh. The field rolled away on 6 June at 16:00, with Leclerc still ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen.
Perez climbed from sixth to fourth by passing Sainz and Gasly. Alonso rose from eighth to seventh, and Vettel went from eleventh to ninth. Hamilton went ahead of Leclerc at the close of lap 3, and Ocon's race ended at that same point with a turbo failure.
Three laps later Verstappen moved ahead of Leclerc for second. Perez followed suit on the next lap, which dropped Leclerc to fourth. Alonso became the first driver to stop for fresh tyres on lap 8, and Leclerc pitted a lap after him.
What changed in the middle of the race?
On lap 11 Sainz overcooked his braking into the turn 8 chicane, which took him from sixth to 15th. Hamilton made the first stop among the leading three, but Gasly was driving slowly in the pit lane behind him and cost him around two seconds on exit. Verstappen stopped the next lap, handing Perez a temporary lead.
Perez pitted a lap later, but the rear-right mechanic's wheelgun failed and a spare was fitted. Both Red Bulls then jumped Hamilton, who fell to fourth. Vettel had yet to stop and briefly led, staying out four more laps before rejoining in seventh.
On lap 30 Stroll, the only driver still on the hardest compound and without a stop, suffered a left-rear failure as he left turn 20. He crashed into the left-hand barriers and retired, and the safety car was deployed. His car stopped at the pit lane entry, so the lane stayed closed until it was cleared.
No leader used the safety car period to change tyres. Alonso, Giovinazzi, Russell and Mazepin were among the drivers who did. Racing resumed on lap 36, and Vettel quickly passed Leclerc and then Gasly to take fourth.
Over the next fifteen laps the order settled. Hamilton kept trying to pass Perez for second, and he was closing down the straights but could not keep up through the corners, so the move never came.
Why did Verstappen retire?
Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:44.805 on lap 44. Two laps later his Red Bull lost its left-rear tyre on the main straight. The car spun into the barriers and came to rest about 50m short of the finish line, which forced the race into a red flag.
Michael Masi, the race director, had the cars drive through the pit lane to get around the crash. Latifi was told by his engineer to stay out, and he took that to mean he should not enter the pit lane. The instruction had only meant he should not change tyres, and his failure to use the pit lane route later cost him 30 seconds in added time.
What did the teams say during the stoppage?
Messages passed between the teams and race control during the red flag. McLaren's Paul James complained that Tsunoda had not slowed enough for the first double yellow flags, while Masi answered that none of the drivers had slowed sufficiently and that every case would be reviewed after the race.
Red Bull's Jonathan Wheatley told Masi that Verstappen's tyre had exploded without any warning. He suggested that the race be stopped so that every driver could fit fresh tyres, as protection against another failure before the restart.
How did the red-flag restart unfold?
The race was suspended for 34 minutes before restarting on lap 50 from a standing start. Perez made a slow getaway from the lead. Trying a move on the inside of turn 1, Hamilton had the wrong brake setting, so he could not scrub speed, locked his wheels and ran onto the run-off.
Hamilton dropped to last, and that mistake would carry consequences for him later in the season. Leclerc and Gasly battled hard, and Gasly emerged ahead after trading places twice on the main straight on the second-last lap. Perez then led the rest of the way.
On the formation lap Russell's car stopped in the pit lane, and gearbox trouble ended his race. Mazepin had got past Mick Schumacher at the restart, but Schumacher regained the place before the finish.
Behind the first three, Leclerc, Norris, Alonso, Tsunoda, Sainz, Ricciardo and Raikkonen completed the top ten. Vettel's new tyres were seven laps fresher than those of Gasly and Hamilton when he finally pitted, which helped him pass the cars in front of him.
Who finished where in Baku?
| Position | Driver | Team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | Second Grand Prix win, first for Red Bull |
| Second | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | Only podium for Aston Martin and his last in Formula One |
| Third | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | Last podium for the team before its rebrand |
| Tenth | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | First point of the season |
| Outside the points | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Dropped to last at the restart after a brake-mode error |
What penalties and disputes followed the race?
Pirelli opened an investigation into the durability of its tyres after the failures on the cars of Verstappen and Stroll. The investigation focused on the rear tyre failures on both cars. Its early findings pointed to debris on the track rather than a flaw in the compounds themselves.
Masi was expected to stress the importance of yellow flag conditions before the French Grand Prix, following McLaren's complaints. Latifi crossed the line 13th on track, but the 30-second addition moved him down the classification. Masi stood by the restart with two laps left, saying there was no reason to hold back the racing once the debris was removed. Leclerc and other drivers said they would query the timing of the safety car.
Verstappen and Russell were classified, because each had covered more than 90% of the race distance. Their retirements did not change the order in the top ten.
What did the result mean for the 2021 season?
Verstappen's retirement and Perez's win changed the shape of the race for the title. Neither Mercedes scored, despite both finishing, a combination not seen since the 2012 United States Grand Prix. Ending outside the points was his poorest result in over a decade, and the first such finish for him since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
Vettel's second place was a personal moment, his only podium for Aston Martin and his final podium in Formula One. Gasly's third place gave AlphaTauri its last podium before the team was rebranded.