Two major crashes shaped the outcome of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. But early pit stops also played a significant role.
Lewis Hamilton’s slightly fumbled stop ensured that a close fight between him and Max Verstappen swung in the Red Bull driver’s favour. Sergio Perez was even able to jump Hamilton, having run third behind him, despite a 4.3-second stop, which team principal Christian Horner said was down to the eventual winner being slightly out of position in his pit box.Nonetheless this proved one of the moments that decided the winner of the race. Perez held Hamilton behind him until the late-race restart, when Hamilton’s own error took him out of contention later.
Before the race, Pirelli and teams had been adamant it was a one-stop but the late red flag naturally meant drivers took the opportunity to fit seconds sets of tyres.
The lengths of those stints will inevitably be a focus of interest, as it may indicate whether the failures were wear-related. Stroll started on hard tyres, taking an alternate strategy to most other drivers, and his race ended on lap 30, with the left rear failure. Verstappen started on soft tyres, pitted on lap 12 – a more-than-decent stint compared to some – and did 34 laps on the hard compound before his own race-ending left rear failure.
Significantly, when the red flag was shown on lap 48 and all the drivers pitted, 11 of them had older tyres than Verstappen’s at the time of the failure. Among the oldest tyres belonged to Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso, who both pitted on lap seven, so were driving on 41-lap-old tyres without having suffered a similar failure.
While driving style, circumstances and the characteristics of each teams’ car will play a factor, neither Stroll nor Verstappen were pushing the limits of possible stints on the hard tyres, it would seem.
One driver whose race is very starkly told in the lap chart is Charles Leclerc. Ferrari feared they wouldn’t have the race pace to match their qualifying ability in Baku and it was fairly instantly and brutally demonstrated by Leclerc’s slow slide down the order.
The cost of mistakes is also highlighted vividly in the lap charts. Both Carlos Sainz Jnr and Hamilton went into run-off areas under braking. At some tracks, they might have been able to rapidly rejoin with little real harm to their position done. However, while Baku’s run-offs do make the walls bite less deeply than at Monaco, they lose a driver a lot of time and an excursion often comes at the price of flat spotting a tyre set.
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2021 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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2021 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:
2021 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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2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’44.481 | 44 | |
2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda | 1’44.687 | 0.206 | 45 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’44.769 | 0.288 | 43 |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’44.890 | 0.409 | 41 |
5 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’44.939 | 0.458 | 46 |
6 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’45.220 | 0.739 | 44 |
7 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’45.326 | 0.845 | 41 |
8 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’45.382 | 0.901 | 46 |
9 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’45.575 | 1.094 | 44 |
10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’45.601 | 1.120 | 43 |
11 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’45.624 | 1.143 | 42 |
12 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’45.665 | 1.184 | 43 |
13 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’45.700 | 1.219 | 42 |
14 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’45.713 | 1.232 | 43 |
15 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’45.959 | 1.478 | 43 |
16 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’46.207 | 1.726 | 28 |
17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’46.608 | 2.127 | 42 |
18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’47.624 | 3.143 | 41 |
19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1’47.747 | 3.266 | 40 |
20 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’50.850 | 6.369 | 2 |
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2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | Stint 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sergio Perez | C5 (13) | C3 (35) | C5 (3) | ||
Sebastian Vettel | C5 (18) | C3 (30) | C5 (3) | ||
Pierre Gasly | C5 (11) | C3 (37) | C5 (3) | ||
Charles Leclerc | C5 (9) | C3 (39) | C5 (3) | ||
Lando Norris | C5 (7) | C3 (41) | C5 (3) | ||
Fernando Alonso | C5 (7) | C3 (27) | C5 (14) | C5 (3) | |
Yuki Tsunoda | C5 (9) | C3 (39) | C5 (3) | ||
Carlos Sainz Jnr | C5 (10) | C3 (38) | C5 (3) | ||
Daniel Ricciardo | C5 (11) | C3 (37) | C5 (3) | ||
Kimi Raikkonen | C4 (13) | C3 (35) | C5 (3) | ||
Antonio Giovinazzi | C5 (2) | C3 (32) | C3 (14) | C5 (3) | |
Valtteri Bottas | C5 (11) | C3 (36) | C5 (1) | C5 (3) | |
Nicholas Latifi | C4 (9) | C3 (39) | C5 (3) | ||
Mick Schumacher | C5 (8) | C3 (26) | C5 (10) | C5 (4) | C5 (3) |
Nikita Mazepin | C5 (9) | C3 (25) | C5 (10) | C5 (3) | C5 (1) |
Lewis Hamilton | C5 (11) | C3 (37) | C5 (3) | ||
George Russell | C4 (1) | C3 (33) | C3 (14) | C5 (0) | |
Max Verstappen | C5 (12) | C3 (33) | |||
Lance Stroll | C3 (29) | ||||
Esteban Ocon | C5 (3) |
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2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took (excludes tyre changes under red flag):
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 19.769 | 12 | |
2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 19.836 | 0.067 | 9 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 19.841 | 0.072 | 18 |
4 | George Russell | Williams | 19.970 | 0.201 | 1 |
5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 19.983 | 0.214 | 34 |
6 | George Russell | Williams | 20.029 | 0.260 | 34 |
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 20.048 | 0.279 | 13 |
8 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 20.064 | 0.295 | 10 |
9 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 20.082 | 0.313 | 11 |
10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 20.156 | 0.387 | 11 |
11 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 20.168 | 0.399 | 7 |
12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 20.193 | 0.424 | 34 |
13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 20.253 | 0.484 | 9 |
14 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 20.356 | 0.587 | 11 |
15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 20.402 | 0.633 | 2 |
16 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 20.533 | 0.764 | 7 |
17 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 21.587 | 1.818 | 44 |
18 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 21.759 | 1.990 | 9 |
19 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 21.874 | 2.105 | 13 |
20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 21.958 | 2.189 | 34 |
21 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 22.149 | 2.380 | 9 |
22 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 22.440 | 2.671 | 8 |
23 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.470 | 2.701 | 11 |
24 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 24.780 | 5.011 | 44 |
25 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 69.761 | 49.992 | 34 |
26 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 86.440 | 66.671 | 48 |
27 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1828.965 | 1809.196 | 47 |
2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
- Aston Martin also confirms it followed Pirelli’s tyre restrictions before crash
- Pirelli confirm teams not to blame for Baku tyre failures following investigation
- “Tyres should not explode like that” says Villeneuve as Pirelli prepares to reveal findings
- Why Alonso is able to enjoy F1 more now than when he left
- Penalty for Safety Car error was just one of Latifi’s frustrations in Baku
melanos
7th June 2021, 14:34
Leclerc and also Alonso. He was the king of the starts and restarts making 8 positions in 3 starts. But he suffered from lack of pace and you cannot defend from DRS in the Baku straights. And his exterior pass on Tsunoda near the end was one of the highlights of the race. Assuming the smoke from 44’s brakes didn’t get in your eyes first.