Formula 1

CHECO SHOWS MAX HOW IT’S DONE ON A STREET CIRCUIT! FERRARI ADMIT RED BULL IN ANOTHER LEAGUE FERNANDO HAPPY WITH FOURTH AND THE FIA INVESTIGATE OCON’S LATE PIT STOP.

Sergio Pérez won Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix to add to his Sprint race victory and cut the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship drivers’ title gap down to six points from Oracle Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen, who completed a memorable 1-2 on the street circuit.

Checo: “It has been an unbelievable weekend, I am super pleased and I cannot say more about the Team, it has been a tremendous day for us and I am so proud of everyone. I want to say a big thanks to Thibaut, he is one of my mechanics who is at home for personal reasons, but he is still a very big part of our Team. The Team enjoy calling me the King of the Streets, I am super happy for them all. They have been tremendous all weekend, from the sprint race yesterday through to the way we executed the race today, it was perfect.

I think today we were the fastest car on track and regardless of the safety car we would have won the race. I am definitely in the fight for the title, not just because of Baku, I believe I can be very good anywhere this season and now I am just thinking of Miami. There are a lot of races coming up and we must make sure we are on it.”

Verstappen and Pérez overhauled Charles Leclerc early on, then Mexican Pérez took advantage of a Safety Car pit-stop shuffle to clear Verstappen and rejoin the track in the lead which he never relinquished as Verstappen overtook Leclerc to finish in second with Ferrari’s Leclerc third.

Max: “Overall it was quite a good race. Of course, I was a bit unlucky with the safety car call, but I think in that second stint both of us were pushing flat out. We used every centimetre on that track and touched a few walls! It was a good Team result and there were a lot of learnings from this weekend to take forward to the rest of the season. We bought it home and a 1-2 for the Team was ideal, Checo had a great race and did very well today. I’m already looking forward to Miami and seeing what we can do there.”

FERNANDO: “I think we had a tricky weekend with the DRS issue on Friday and Saturday, but despite this we have finished only one second away from the podium at the chequered flag. With that in mind, I have to be happy with fourth position and our overall performance which was encouraging all race.

Thankfully today the DRS seemed to work fine, and our tyre management was strong. I thought the tailwind was quite random and here in Baku you are always on the edge. We only have to wait a few days before we go racing again, so let’s see what we can do next week in Miami!”