Daniel Ricciardo claimed his first win of the 2017 season in an Azerbaijan Grand Prix full of drama with three safety cars and a red flag and lived up to the expected craziness previously seen in Formula 2 races.
The Australian recovered from having to pit early for new tyres and to clear a blocked brake duct, which dropped him to 17th, and as the chaos unfolded, produced a brilliant move on the two Williams at the restart after the red flag, which would put him in position to claim his fifth win in his Formula 1 career.
Valtteri Bottas was also able to make a comeback, having dropped a lap down and last after Lap 1 after colliding with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 2, to claim second place by a tenth of a second across the line from driver of the day Lance Stroll, as the Canadian also kept it clean to become the youngest podium scorer in F1 history.
There was significant drama between championship rivals Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, who finished the race fourth and fifth respectively. A coming together as they were P1 and P2 behind the Safety Car, would see the German hit the back of the Mercedes in what Vettel believed to be a brake test. In response, he would draw alongside, gesticulate to the Briton and intentionally bang wheels, for which he was given a 10-second stop and go penalty.
For Hamilton, he fell out of contention for the race after his headrest came loose, following the red flag period, causing him to pit for a replacement and dropping him down to 10th.
The two drivers would emerge from their respective stops almost side-by-side before continuing and making progress back up through the field.
In sixth was Esteban Ocon, after the Frenchman recovered from an incident that saw him collide with his teammate Sergio Perez, potentially costing them podium places and the subsequent debris among other areas around the track contributed to the red flag that was called on Lap 22. Kevin Magnussen ran as high as third at one stage before being overtaken by the Mercedes’, Vettel and Ocon to eventually claim seventh in the Haas.
Carlos Sainz also used the high attrition to finish eighth after spinning and falling to the back after Turn 1 when he was off-putted by his recovering team-mate Daniil Kvyat. The Russian would also cause the first Safety Car after he was forced to pull over exiting Turn 12 with a mechanical issue.
Fernando Alonso did as hoped by avoiding the drama and controlling a clean race to award McLaren their first points this season in ninth, while Pascal Wehrlein was able to grab the last point completing the top 10 for Sauber.
There would only be three finishers not to score points with Marcus Ericsson, Stoffel Vandoorne and Romain Grosjean completed the classified order.
Of the other retirements, Jolyon Palmer had a misfire on his reconnaissance lap to the grid and would have engine problems during the race, as would Max Verstappen was forced to retire for the fourth time in six races while challenging for third.
Raikkonen and Sergio Perez appeared to have retired due to damage, as the Finn incurred a puncture on the debris from the Force India collision but during the red flag both teams were able to solve the problems and get the cars back on the grid before both having to retire for different reasons later on.
Felipe Massa had eyes on the podium, challenging Vettel for second at one stage, but a damper issue after the red flag forced the 36-year-old to retire, that would be swiftly followed by Nico Hulkenberg, as the Renault driver made a rare mistake hitting the wall at Turn 7 and breaking the front-right suspension.
With the result, Vettel was able to extend his championship lead over Hamilton to 15 points, while similarly, Mercedes moved an additional 16 points clear at the top of the Constructors’ standings ahead of Round 9 in Austria in two weeks time.
