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Another one-two finish for
Mercedes as Valtteri Bottas led home Lewis Hamilton: the order in which they
started the race. The top four all used similar one-stop strategies,
starting on the soft tyre and then switching to the medium. The
highest-placed driver to run an alternative strategy was Ferrari’s Charles
Leclerc, who finished fifth from eighth on the grid, after running a long
first stint on the medium before switching to the soft.
KEY MOMENTS
- Unusually for Baku, there was only one virtual safety car and
comparatively few incidents: this meant that there wasn’t the usual drama
often seen in Azerbaijan.
- Most drivers started on the soft tyre and switched quite early to the
medium tyre, which showed a good level of pace and durability throughout the
race.
- There were some interesting alternative strategies: Red Bull’s Pierre
Gasly was one of three drivers to start from the pit lane, on the medium
tyre. He did 38 laps on this compound and got to sixth before retiring,
bringing out the virtual safety car.
- Some drivers stopped twice: Leclerc made a late stop for another set of
soft tyres to score the point for fastest lap, with McLaren’s Lando Norris
also stopping twice en route to eighth at the flag.
- Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was another driver to start from the pit lane
but scored a point in 10th with a soft-medium strategy, completing 44 laps
on the harder compound.
HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED
- HARD C2: This was not used at all during the race, as wear and degradation
was sufficiently low to make the medium and soft tyres the best choice in
Baku. The hard was not used extensively in free practice either, so teams
were lacking data on it.
- MEDIUM C3: Used for the most part of the grand prix, proving to have a
good balance between performance and durability that made it the optimal
race tyre. As a result, some very long stints were seen on this compound
with impressive consistency.
- SOFT C4: Used to set fastest lap right at the end of the race by Leclerc.
Most drivers started on this compound but preferred the durability of the
medium for the bulk of the race. As Leclerc missed Q3, he had some available
new soft tyres to go for the fastest lap point, which he achieved by a full
second: setting the new race lap record in Baku.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“It was quite a tricky build-up to the race, with FP1 largely cancelled, two
red flags in FP2, then an interrupted qualifying with cool weather
conditions subsequently. This made it reasonably hard to have an accurate
read on the expected tyre behaviour for the weekend, with track temperatures
today slightly warmer than they had been previously. It was clear though
that there would be quite a wide pit stop window, and in fact we saw a few
variations on strategy: including a late pit stop from Charles Leclerc to
take the fastest lap point. Once again, we’ve seen the impact of this new
rule for 2019: Leclerc exploited it well here, while the championship leader
is currently in front by just one point.” |
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