In a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sergio Pérez breaks Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominant streak with a sensational performance.
As after each Grand Prix, it’s time to explore the most notable statistics, the records that were broken, and the remarkable streaks that either continued or came to an abrupt end last weekend…
Qualifications
Charles Leclerc is a monster in quick laps at Baku! He becomes the second Ferrari driver to secure four consecutive poles at the same circuit, following Michael Schumacher, who did it at Suzuka, Barcelona, and Sepang.
This marks the third pole of the year for the Monegasque driver and his 26th career pole.
Leclerc is now 9th in the rankings of drivers with the most poles with one constructor, alongside Mika Hakkinen (McLaren) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).
However, Charles Leclerc has still not managed to convert one of his 4 poles into a victory at Baku…
In fact, Ferrari has achieved 5 poles at Baku, without ever winning there!
Oscar Piastri recorded his 5th career front-row start.
Carlos Sainz, 3rd, has never started better at this circuit. It’s also his best qualifying since Monaco.
A miracle at Red Bull! For the first time in 33 Grands Prix (Miami 2023), Sergio Pérez outqualified Max Verstappen—and impressively so.
George Russell finished 5th in Q3, matching his best start at Baku. He is now assured of winning the head-to-head in qualifications against Hamilton, as he now leads 13-4.
This is already the third time in four Grands Prix that Max Verstappen has finished outside the top 5 in Q3.
Fernando Alonso made his fifth appearance in Q3 over the last six Grands Prix.
Franco Colapinto is the first Argentine to start in the top 10 since Carlos Reutemann at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1982.
Since Silverstone 2022, Alexander Albon (admittedly due to a team error in Q3) had not been outqualified by a teammate at Williams F1.
However, Albon has reached Q3 for the sixth time this year and for the third consecutive race. The upgrades are paying off!
And Williams has placed both cars in Q3 for the first time this season.
Oliver Bearman finished 11th, outperforming Nico Hulkenberg during his first qualification for Haas. It’s worth noting that Hulkenberg has dominated Kevin Magnussen 13-3 this year.
Yuki Tsunoda failed to reach Q3 for the first time in four visits to Baku.
Lance Stroll has made it to Q3 in Baku only once during his last six visits.
Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q1 for the first time in Baku (7 Grands Prix contested here). It was his fifth Q1 elimination this season, one more than Tsunoda.
Lando Norris placed 17th in Q1, suffering his first Q1 elimination since Las Vegas last year. Until now, McLaren was the only team to have placed both its cars in Q3 at every race this season.
For the 16th time in 17 Grands Prix, Valtteri Bottas has outqualified Guanyu Zhou.
Alpine (or Renault) has been on the back row or started from the pit lane in its previous four races at Baku.
The Race
The 100th race of this decade was won by Oscar Piastri.
The Australian has claimed his 2nd F1 victory, equaling Lando Norris.
Last time, Oscar Piastri also won from 2nd place (Hungary).
McLaren had never finished in the top five at Baku.
Over the last 7 Grands Prix, Oscar Piastri has scored the most points on the grid.
McLaren has led the constructors’ championship for the first time in over ten and a half years, since the Australian Grand Prix in 2014. And that was only the first Grand Prix of the year, making it less representative.
Red Bull has thus led the constructors’ championship uninterrupted from Spain 2022 to Azerbaijan 2024. That’s 55 races or 847 days.
Leclerc has won only one of his last 15 starts from pole position (Monaco 2024).
George Russell has reached his third podium of the season.
With 4th place, Lando Norris has closed the gap in the championship to Max Verstappen to 59 points, with seven Grands Prix and three sprints remaining.
Max Verstappen has secured just one podium in the last five races. And still no victory since Barcelona…
6th place, Fernando Alonso secured Aston Martin’s best result since Canada, eight races ago.
With 7th place, Alex Albon achieved Williams’ best result of the season.
And with 8th place, his teammate Franco Colapinto scored the first points of his career in only his second start.
Colapinto has scored more points in two races (4 points) than his predecessor at Williams, Logan Sargeant, in a year and a half (1 point).
This is the most points scored in one race by Williams since the Belgian Grand Prix in 2021.
Williams scored with both cars for only the second time in the last three seasons (the last instance was in the United States in 2023).
Colapinto is the first Argentine to score points since Carlos Reutemann, also for Williams, at the South African Grand Prix in 1982.
Lewis Hamilton has reached a new milestone with 100,000 kilometers raced in F1. He is the second to achieve this, after Fernando Alonso.
In 17 Grands Prix this year, Lewis has finished in the points 16 times.
Oliver Bearman took 10th place for Haas and thus became the first driver in F1 history to score points for two different constructors in his first two Grands Prix (he finished seventh for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia).
Hulkenberg finished 11th for the seventh time this season, thereby setting a new personal record.
This was the second Grand Prix of the season to end under a virtual safety car, following Australia.
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Azerbaijan GP Stats: Pérez Stuns, Stops Red Bull Azerbaijan GP Stats: Pérez Stuns, Stops Red Bull
