Charles Leclerc scored the first points of his Formula One career in fine style with sixth place for Sauber. He gained seven places during the course of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a feat matched by Stoffel Vandoorne and Marcus Ericsson.
However one driver made even more progress: Brendon Hartley, who took his first F1 point after making up nine places. He took the place in the top 10 for his team mate who clashed with Kevin Magnussen at the final restart.The luckless Valtteri Bottas set the fastest lap of the race on a set of super-soft tyres which were at least 40 laps old. His pace on old rubber brought him into contention for a win which surely would have been his had he not struck a piece of debris which punctured his tyre three laps from home.
The race was turned on its head by a collision between the two Red Bull drivers which occured when Daniel Ricciardo was trying to pass Max Verstappen. He had already passed his team mate once, then dropped back behind him when the pair made their pit stops.
As the table below shows Ricciardo’s complete pit stop time was actually faster than Verstappen’s. He ended up behind his team mate partly because he found traffic on his out-lap, and partly because Verstappen, like Bottas, was still able to find plenty of performance from the worn super-soft tyres.
Take a closer look at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with the interactive charts below.
2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
| Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 3 | 0 | -11 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 1 | 0 | -3 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 6 | 0 | 4 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 4 | 0 | |
| Max Verstappen | 5 | 0 | |
| Sergio Perez | 8 | -1 | 5 |
| Esteban Ocon | 7 | ||
| Lance Stroll | 10 | 2 | 2 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 11 | ||
| Nico Hulkenberg | 14 | 4 | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 9 | 2 | 4 |
| Pierre Gasly | 17 | 6 | 5 |
| Brendon Hartley | 19 | 4 | 9 |
| Romain Grosjean | 20 | 6 | |
| Kevin Magnussen | 15 | -2 | 2 |
| Fernando Alonso | 12 | -4 | 5 |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 16 | 3 | 7 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 18 | 0 | 7 |
| Charles Leclerc | 13 | 1 | 7 |
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2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’45.149 | 37 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’45.412 | 0.263 | 35 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’45.419 | 0.270 | 34 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’45.530 | 0.381 | 38 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’45.771 | 0.622 | 31 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’46.206 | 1.057 | 51 |
| 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’46.523 | 1.374 | 50 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’46.815 | 1.666 | 50 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’46.856 | 1.707 | 50 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’46.880 | 1.731 | 34 |
| 11 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’47.403 | 2.254 | 31 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’47.449 | 2.300 | 32 |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’47.666 | 2.517 | 50 |
| 14 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’47.925 | 2.776 | 51 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’48.035 | 2.886 | 38 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’48.155 | 3.006 | 35 |
| 17 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’48.288 | 3.139 | 51 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’48.867 | 3.718 | 10 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | |||
| 20 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes |
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2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | Stint 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (22) | Soft (18) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ultra soft (1) | Soft (39) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Sergio Perez | Ultra soft (2) | Soft (38) | Super soft (11) | ||
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (30) | Soft (10) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ultra soft (15) | Soft (25) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Charles Leclerc | Super soft (24) | Soft (16) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (1) | Soft (39) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Lance Stroll | Super soft (23) | Soft (17) | Ultra soft (11) | ||
| Stoffel Vandoorne | Super soft (17) | Soft (8) | Ultra soft (14) | Ultra soft (7) | Ultra soft (5) |
| Brendon Hartley | Soft (1) | Ultra soft (21) | Super soft (17) | Ultra soft (12) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Super soft (1) | Soft (17) | Ultra soft (18) | Ultra soft (15) | |
| Pierre Gasly | Ultra soft (12) | Soft (27) | Ultra soft (12) | ||
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (1) | Soft (38) | Ultra soft (12) | ||
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (40) | Ultra soft (8) | |||
| Romain Grosjean | Soft (2) | Super soft (38) | Ultra soft (2) | ||
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (38) | Ultra soft (1) | |||
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (37) | Ultra soft (2) | |||
| Nico Hulkenberg | Ultra soft (10) | ||||
| Esteban Ocon | |||||
| Sergey Sirotkin |
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2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 19.737 | 23 | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 19.765 | 0.028 | 38 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 19.925 | 0.188 | 37 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 20.037 | 0.300 | 30 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 20.192 | 0.455 | 40 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 20.377 | 0.640 | 22 |
| 7 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 20.760 | 1.023 | 39 |
| 8 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 20.782 | 1.045 | 12 |
| 9 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 20.809 | 1.072 | 22 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 20.823 | 1.086 | 40 |
| 11 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 20.887 | 1.150 | 25 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 20.967 | 1.230 | 40 |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 20.978 | 1.241 | 46 |
| 14 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 21.058 | 1.321 | 24 |
| 15 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 21.072 | 1.335 | 39 |
| 16 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 21.103 | 1.366 | 17 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 21.149 | 1.412 | 40 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 21.236 | 1.499 | 40 |
| 19 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 21.287 | 1.550 | 39 |
| 20 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.329 | 1.592 | 40 |
| 21 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 21.371 | 1.634 | 40 |
| 22 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 21.376 | 1.639 | 1 |
| 23 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 21.516 | 1.779 | 15 |
| 24 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 21.725 | 1.988 | 2 |
| 25 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 21.778 | 2.041 | 39 |
| 26 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 22.030 | 2.293 | 40 |
| 27 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.757 | 3.020 | 40 |
| 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 25.378 | 5.641 | 18 |
| 29 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 26.174 | 6.437 | 40 |
| 30 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 28.109 | 8.372 | 2 |
| 31 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 30.012 | 10.275 | 1 |
| 32 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 32.629 | 12.892 | 36 |
| 33 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 35.608 | 15.871 | 1 |
| 34 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 44.107 | 24.370 | 1 |
| 35 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 56.710 | 36.973 | 1 |
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2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
- Bottas “cried like a baby” after losing Baku win
- Williams denies targeting rivals by requesting review of Sirotkin’s Baku penalty
- Magnussen texted second apology to Gasly after Baku
- Ricciardo: No way to avoid Verstappen crash after he changed lines
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
30th April 2018, 3:00
Another missed opportunity for Hulkenberg, huh?
Jere (@jerejj)
30th April 2018, 3:20
@fer-no65 Yes.