2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – The Good, Bad and Ugly

The 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been won by Lewis Hamilton in somewhat lucky circumstances after his teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered a late puncture when leading as his Mercedes team out-thought Ferrari and Vettel on strategy.

Bottas himself had got lucky, as his team were waiting for a Safety Car to come to make their pitstop, and they received it at just the right time as the two Red Bull drivers came together in the race’s big event.

The Red Bull pair had up to that point been driving like a crash was inevitable for many laps of the race, and interest in the next few weeks will be the fallout.

There were good and bad performances down the field – a surprise podium – a few victims of the walls of Baku – and as ever we attempt to sort them out with our Good, Bad and Ugly of the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. There was so much, it took us two days to compile it.

2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix  – THE GOOD

LEWIS HAMILTON

After losing the Australian Grand Prix to an ill timed Safety Car, the karma was realigned for the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as Hamilton took advantage of his team mate’s late race puncture, and Vettel’s ill conceived lunge after the safety car to grab his first win of the season.

Aside from the end result it wasn’t the greatest race for Lewis. Outqualified again, surprisingly off the pace during the race again after a similarly ordinary Chinese Grand Prix last start.

In the end though, you have to take the wins when offered on a silver platter, and Hamilton also took the lead of the Drivers Championship at the same time. All’s well that end’s well for now. But truth be told Lewis Hamilton is mysteriously underwhelming this season so far, and one can’t continue to be outqualified by your team mate, rely on Red Bull crashes or a poor Ferrari strategy read to win a World Championship.

VALTTERI BOTTAS

For the exact opposite reason, the Finn gets a Good nod due to his excellent drive in his Mercedes that ended in bad luck and no points.

It was another decent chance at a race win in 2018, in fact the Finn has been in contention for the win in the last three races. He underwhelmed in Bahrain, was given a lesson in how to win a Grand Prix in China, but was just plain unlucky in Azerbaijan, although at the same time he was lucky as his win would have been based on a timely Safety Car.

He certainly has been closer to the front so far in 2018 than last season despite no win yet. Shame, he’d be leading the Championship if he had of won in Baku.

KIMI RAIKKONEN

A good end result for Kimi who deserves a little luck. He has been driving well.

He was involved in a first lap tangle with the Force India of Esteban Ocon and needed a new front wing, but somehow ended up on the second step of the podium. The crash was sort of Kimi’s fault, but Ocon could have not turned in so hard to avoid contact.

Just great to see Kimi competitive again, and that’s worth a Good. For everyone.

SERGIO PEREZ

One thing about Sergio Perez, is that very few drivers take advantage of a crazy race and a rare non big team podium chance like the Mexican. Whenever chaos reigns, Sergio Perez is often hanging around the sharp end ready to hoover up some big points.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix provided yet another great chance at a podium after the Red Bulls took each other out, and yet again the Force India pilot grabbed the chance to score big. The 15 points for third was his first for the season, which has been reasonably mediocre until now.

CARLOS SAINZ

The Spanish Renault driver had a very good Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying a decent 9th on the grid was a good start, but the eventual 5th place in the race was a highlight. It wasn’t just a flash in the pan for the race, he was mixing it with Red Bulls early in the event and holding his own.

He saw off his in form teammate Nico Hulkenberg, whose day ended in the wall.

CHARLES LECLERC

Last year’s F2 Champion got to show his abilities in F1 for the first time, and he and his Sauber team were rewarded with 6th place. The man from Monaco can race, if you have seen him in F2 last year, so no surprise on such an afternoon that he profited from his race craft. 

It is a good nod to F2 hopefuls that the Champions are getting a god and delivering great results. Not forgetting 2016 F2 Champion Pierre Gasly’s P4 effort in Bahrain.

FERNANDO ALONSO

The Spaniard does it again, P7 after not one but two punctures on the right from the first lap fracas that saw him bump off the pitlane wall to get around. Lord help F1 if he gets a decent car again.

BRENDON HARTLEY

Scored his first points for Toro Rosso for his 10th place finish. Sure there were only 3 cars behind him at the end, but that point is one more than many a Grand Prix driver / entrant. Like Luca Badoer, Huub Rothengatter, and Esteban Tuero. A nice story for someone who in his late 20’s may have thought that F1 had passed him by.

2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – THE BAD

RED BULL / MAX VERSTAPPEN / DANIEL RICCIARDO

It doesn’t get much worse for a team than the two drivers crashing into each other. Well except if it is fighting for the win. Red Bull should know about that from the Webber / Vettel days. But whilst the animosity and perceived favouritism is not as bad today as back then, there is a hint of it in the air after Red Bull made re-signing Max a priority and Daniel Ricciardo’s success in China and Max Verstappen’s inability to stay out of trouble in 2018.

So two crashing team mates is not great for the tension.

Who’s fault? You could say both, and you’ be right. But for us Max Verstappen is slightly more to blame with his vigorous defending the main cause of the accident, although Daniel Ricciardo could have known that it was the likely outcome having seen any of Max’s driving for the last few seasons. It must be said that you could see it coming as they diced throughout the race, an earlier little touch also slightly more Verstappen’s fault. 

You only have to look to the comparison of Ricciardo v Verstappen in the Chinese Grand Prix to see who is generally able to avoid an accident and who isn’t.

Hopefully it won’t happen again between the two Rd Bull drivers, but with Ricciardo looking increasingly like he might bugger off, maybe the Australian will feel he’ll have nothing to lose, and Verstappen doesn’t seem to be able to help himself right now.

NICO HULKENBERG’

For some reason the German impresses but never gets talked about seriously for top drives, perhaps his off in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday is the reason why. 

His crash on lap 11 proves even more costly when you see Sergio Perez grabbing yet another crazy race podium. Hulkenberg will continue to be the drivers with the most starts without a podium.

ESTEBAN OCON

Turfed out on lap One by Kimi Raikkonen, but instead of shutting the door on Kimi and a chance of points, he could have kept the door slightly more ajar, survived the first lap and done a Perez.

KEVIN MAGNUSSEN

Already the most unpopular driver on the F1 grid, F1’s Jerk tried to put Pierre Gasly into the pit straight wall at 300kph +. The Dane was lucky that it didn’t end up much more deadly. 10th place isn’t worth killing someone over.

2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – THE UGLY

TORO ROSSO

Pierre Gasly’s Magnussen incident wasn’t his first near death experience over the weekend. He nearly collided with his Toro Rosso team mate in Qualifying at plenty km/h.

It was all over miscommunication about qualifying strategy, but could have ended so much worse.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL / FERRARI

Really should be in the good books with a pole, and some blistering pace early in the race, but once again being the fastest car in qualifying and for the first half of the race means nothing without the reward of points. Makes it to ugly for the amateur hour lock up when the last Safety Car left, and cost him a podium. Or for the way he behaved after the first Safety Car.

THE MARTINI / MINARDI MEDAL AND CHAVES / COLONI PLATE RETURN

Back by popular demand of one person is our awards for the best F1 Driver / Team for the 2018 season.

After each race we will assign points for the Good, Bad, and Ugly described above, and some other useful tidbits of Grand Prix statistics like Overtaking, Fastest Laps, and Retirements.

With offering points for good, and taking them off for bad, we were accused of being a little too negative last year, given very few drivers and teams made it into positive territory. This season we have revamped all of our many reader and fan.

The Martini / Minardi Medal goes to the best Driver / Team for the season..
The Chaves / Life F1 Plate goes to the worst Driver / Team for the season.

2018 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX MARTINI MEDAL / CHAVES PLATE RESULTS

Here’s where we post the rolling results for the season. Note some will have zero points for being good and bad, others will not be named as they haven’t done anything good or bad.

Most statistics from the outstanding RaceFans website.

MARTINI MEDAL / CHAVES PLATE

THE MINARDI MEDAL / COLONI PLATE

THE POINTS EXPLAINED….

2 Points for featuring in the GOOD (Driver/Team) – as above
-1 Point for BAD or UGLY (Driver/Team) – as above
1 Point for Outqualifying Teammate (Driver) – as per Grid
1 Point for Pole Position (Driver/Team) – Vettel/Ferrari
2 Points for Race Win (Driver/Team) – Hamilton/Mercedes
1 Point for Podium (Driver/Team) – Raikkonen/Ferrari + Perez/Force India
-1 Point for Last on Grid (Driver/Team) – Grosjean/Haas
-1 Point for Penalty Taken for Mechanical (Team) – NA
1 Point for Top Non Big 3 Car in Top 6 in Qualifying (Driver/Team) – Ocon/Force India
1 Point for Top Non Big 3 Car in Top 6 in Race (Driver/Team) – Perez/Force India
1 Point for Fastest Lap (Driver/Team) – Bottas/Mercedes
1 Point for Most Places Gained on Lap One (Driver) – Gasly/Gorsjean
1 Point for Most Places Gained in Race (Driver) – Hartley
1 Point/-1 Point for Best/Worst Pitstop (Team) – Mercedes/Toro Rosso
-1 Point for 1st Retirement (Driver/Team) – Sirotkin/William + Ocon/Force India
-1 Point for Avoidable Accident (Driver) – Verstappen/Ricciardo/Ocon/Raikkonen/Sirotkin