Perez strikes twice in Baku

He won ahead of his teammate Max Verstappen and reduced the gap in the overall championship standings to six points. Charles Leclerc took Ferrari's first Grand Prix podium of the season in third place. Red Bull remained untouchable in the fourth race of this season. The Austrian-British team based in Milton Keynes achieved their third double victory this year; both Perez and Verstappen now have two wins each.

Perez beat Leclerc and Verstappen in the first sprint of the year in Baku on Saturday, but is still behind the Dutchman in the World Cup standings. The 33-year-old is now the only Formula 1 driver with two Azerbaijan victories on his resume.

Charles Leclerc (left) had to settle for third place behind the two Red Bulls. © APA/afp / NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA

“It worked really well for us today,” said Perez happily. “We got the most out of it today. “We both hit the wall a few times, but we managed to keep him under control,” he said, referring to his stable rival. He regretted his bad luck with an early safety car deployment that had caught him off guard. “It is what it is,” said Verstappen calmly. “We know it’s a very long season. We learned a lot again, and at the end of the day it was a good team effort.”

Ferrari has no chance against Red Bull For Leclerc it was once again clear that Red Bull had the faster car. “They are in a different league when it comes to racing. That wasn’t possible over 51 laps, they have so much more speed than us,” said the Monegasque, who started from pole position. However, on the 4th lap, Verstappen easily overtook him with DRS support. Two laps later, the double lead for Red Bull was perfect when Perez also passed Leclerc on the start-finish straight.

On the 11th lap, after Nyck de Vries had an accident, the safety car was brought out on the road, which played into Perez and Leclerc's cards, as Verstappen had turned into the pit lane shortly beforehand. After completing all the stops, the Dutchman was third, but passed Leclerc for the second time after the end of the safety car phase.

From then on, the two “bulls” controlled the race, in which there was no serious danger from behind. Perez initially remained consistently around 1,5 seconds ahead of Verstappen before the gap gradually increased to over three seconds. The world champion complained over the radio about his car's braking balance, but there was no sign of a dramatic drop in performance.

By then, Leclerc had long since had to move forward and had to be careful not to come under pressure from Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin. The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell fought unsuccessfully against Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. The positions didn't change any more: Alonso came fourth ahead of Sainz, Hamilton, Stroll and Russell, who ended up getting the additional point for the fastest lap with a fresh set of tires.

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Perez strikes twice in Baku

Sergio Perez celebrated his second Formula 1 victory of the season in Azerbaijan. The Red Bull driver from Mexico also prevailed in the main race one day after his sprint success in Baku, which meant the Mexican's sixth career victory.

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