A victory of good fortune, a victory for resilience and that old-fashioned virtue of hanging in there. Lewis Hamilton isn’t at the top of his game but after his win in Baku he is at the top of the drivers’ standings.
He won’t stay there for long unless his and Mercedes’ performance improve but, equally, he will take some stopping if and when he does get the W09 up to speed. Qualifying marked only Hamilton’s second qualifying ‘win’ over Bottas in six events, but without the Safety Car he would have been soundly beaten on race day.
Rating out of ten: 7
Second place is a good result in the end, but he’ll still be ruing that qualifying mistake which denied him what looked to be a certain pole position. What might have been. Again.
Rating out of ten: 7
A first podium since Baku 2016, Sergio Perez’s perseverance was richly rewarded on Sunday as he took advantage of every opportunity that came his way.
The Mexican found himself down in 15th on lap two after needing repairs following a first-lap ram from Sergey Sirotkin, while a five-second penalty for overtaking before the Safety Car line added to his difficulties.
He benefitted from trouble to cars ahead of him, but Perez secured a podium finish by passing Sebastian Vettel on track, before producing “the best two laps of my whole career” to keep the four-time world champion behind him.
Rating out of ten: 9
Up until the Safety Car restart, Sebastian Vettel didn’t do an awful lot wrong in Baku. On pole, controlling the race – he looked set for a comfortable victory.
But while he must be admired for attempting that Turn One pass on Bottas, that lock-up and flat-spot to his tyre was eventually costly as he lost the race and the championship lead as a result. Will he live to regret the lost points by the season’s end? It’s conceivable Seb could have won all four races so far in 2018 – instead he has won just two and finds himself second in the drivers’ championship.
Rating out of ten: 8
Carlos Sainz had underwhelmed in the opening three races but he was back on form in Baku as he recorded his best finish for Renault and the second-best of his F1 career with P5.
The Spaniard had an excellent opening stint, racing and passing both Red Bulls, and while he suffered more on the soft tyre, he battled hard to bring home a good haul of points.
Next on Sainz’s to-do list will be ending team-mate Nico Hulkenberg’s domination of him in qualifying – Sainz has been out-qualified in every race so far and was three tenths off the German on Saturday.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
The race Charles Leclerc came of age in Formula 1. The Monegasque driver had a superb weekend at the site of his emotional Formula 2 victory 12 months ago.
The 20-year-old’s 13th place in Qualifying was Sauber’s joint-best since 2015 while he then showed great race-craft and composure to seal sixth on race day, including fending off two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
“It feels like a win,” Leclerc said afterwards, and more performances like this will almost certainly catch the attention of Ferrari.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
Fernando Alonso declared Azerbaijan one of his best-ever races and the Spaniard continues to drag the under-performing MCL33 to positions it should not be. The sight of Alonso trundling round on only two wheels on the opening lap would have spelt a DNF for many, but somehow he manoeuvred a heavily-damaged car to seventh. “An unbelievable result, probably one of the best races I have ever done,” he said.
Alonso remains one of only two drivers to have out-qualified their team-mate in every race of 2018 – beating Stoffel Vandoorne by nearly half a second in Baku – while he has now gained 22 places on his starting spot in four Grands Prix. Imagine what he could do if back in a competitive car!
Rating out of ten: 9
It may not have ended with a podium like last year, but this was just as mature a drive from Lance Stroll as he delivered his and Williams’ much-needed first points-finish of the year.
Stroll made up places on the first lap and avoided the carnage throughout the race, but will be disappointed to have let Alonso through for seventh in the end.
Rating out of ten: 8
Credit Stoffel Vandoorne for the very late change of tyres onto ultrasofts which aided the Belgian’s late charge up into the points.
But this was an otherwise poor weekend for Stoffel, way off the pace in practice, falling at the first hurdle in qualifying and then falling to the back of the field on race day after flat-spotting his tyres.
McLaren’s problem is their cars, not their drivers, but Stoffel doesn’t want to give team bosses another headache.
Rating out of ten: 6
On this occasion, starting towards the back of the grid worked wonders for Brendon Hartley as he avoided all the Baku bedlam to seal his first F1 point. But it still wasn’t an overly impressive weekend with Toro Rosso lacking pace, while Hartley took blame for the near-disaster of a collision with his team-mate in qualifying.
Rating out of ten: 6
Marcus Ericsson, admittedly for the first time this season, was well and truly outperformed by his Sauber team-mate in Baku. The Swede had a collision with Kevin Magnussen on Lap One and was struggling in the conditions throughout the race, eventually finishing 11th. He didn’t deserve much more.
Rating out of ten: 5
Pierre Gasly made a storming start and could have easily collected solid points here were it not for Magnussen’s reckless shunt. Pierre later hit out at Kevin, describing the Haas driver as “the most dangerous guy I have ever raced with.”
But while he continues to be hindered by a lack of straight-line speed in the Toro Rosso-Honda, Gasly is steadily improving in F1 2018.
Rating out of ten: 7.5
A weekend Kevin Magnussen will want to move on from quickly as his fine start to the season came to an end. A mistake in qualifying left him lining up in 15th and contact with Marcus Ericsson early on left him at the back of the field and long-term damage to his Haas.
The Dane could make little headway on track, and his Sunday ended with a 10-second penalty after sending Pierre Gasly into the wall on the Safety Car restart, which led to the Toro Rosso man’s angry post-race outburst.
Rating out of ten: 4
Did not finish
Watch how Lewis Hamilton won the Azerbaijan GP after the Safety Car restart and Valtteri Bottas’ puncture
With three laps of the Azerbaijan GP remaining, Valtteri Bottas was heading to the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
One unfortunate puncture later – the cruellest of blows against a driver who hadn’t made a mistake all afternoon – and the Finn is 30 points adrift of the summit. The size and significance of the setback shouldn’t be understated. Nor just how undeserved his fate was.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
Reflecting on Romain Grosjean’s Azerbaijan GP’s exit feels akin to intruding on private grief. Losing his Haas behind the Safety Car must constitute one of the strangest and least edifying race exits in a long while.
Running sixth when he crashed, Grosjean is still without a point this term.
Rating out of ten: 4
Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo crash into each other during a heated Azerbaijan GP
Four races into 2018, at least four major mistakes by Max Verstappen. Park the crash for a moment and focus on the numbers: Max’s highest finish this season is a fifth-place finish, he’s only made it to the finishing line twice, and he’s just eighth in the Drivers’ Championship with a measly 18 points.
Rating out of ten: 5
Daniel Ricciardo did his best to recreate his China overtaking heroics in Baku, and did a fine job with many of his moves against an aggressive-in-defence team-mate. But his attempted bluff to the inside was perhaps one move too far and the Australian paid the consequences.
It’s a shame, as Ricciardo once again showed he is one of 2018’s in-form drivers by out-qualifying Verstappen, and displaying better race pace throughout. What might have been.
Rating out of ten: 6
Nico Hulkenberg has so much credit in the bank at Renault – only Nico and Fernando Alonso have out-qualified their team-mates for every race this year – that his race-ending mistake in Baku can be glossed over.
“Nico had some misfortune, but it was his only mistake last year and if it has to be his only mistake again this year, he will be more than forgiven,” said team boss Cyril Abiteboul.
But this was not the day on which to make such a critical error. But for his slide into the barriers, it could easily have been Nico rather than Sergio Perez finally crossing the line for a long overdue podium.
Rating out of ten: 6
The Safety Car is called out in an eventful first lap of the Azerbaijan GP
Sergey Sirotkin threw away all his good work of the weekend in the space of three corners. The Russian had recovered well from his Practice Three crash to record his best qualifying result of the season.
But he then slammed into the back of Perez’s Force India at Turn Two before slicing Alonso’s tyres on the run to Turn Three which added terminal damage to his Williams. To rub salt into the wounds, the first of those incidents earned Sirotkin a three-place grid penalty for next week’s Spanish GP.
Rating out of ten: 5
Esteban Ocon was unable to make the most of Force India’s return to form as he suffered only his second retirement in F1 as he was pitched into the wall by Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap.
The stewards deemed it a racing incident, but Ocon should have left more space for the Ferrari to make the most of his good start.
The DNF means Ocon is now fourth-bottom of the Drivers’ Championship and he will be hoping it was not a track-specific improvement for his team as he looks to move up in Spain.
Rating out of ten: 6
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