From the classic street circuit to one of the good modern street circuits – it may not be Monaco, but something always happens in Azerbaijan, and the marketing focus on street fighting is spot on based on previous events and the take on the Street Fighter video game in the intro is a welcome blast from the past. Talking of street fighting, our 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary is here to smash through the barriers of Grand Prix reviews.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a small serving of cynicism.
And why not check out our Monaco Grand Prix Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far and the last race.
—-
2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results
THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the Scene – It’s pretty hot on track, and the race grid has a familiar feel with Ferraris and Red Bulls covering the top four. But this is Azerbaijan, and surely there will be someone who can’t help themselves on the opening lap. Safety Cars are a very high possibility, which adds an element of luck. Surely Charles Leclerc is due for some.
One wonders if this is the year where cars collide and block the track around the notoriously tight part of the track around the castle.
TOP 10 GRID – LEC PER VER SAI RUS GAS HAM TSU VET ALO
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Leclerc gets away well initially but Sergio Perez had the better side of the grid and nails Leclerc into the first corner and takes the lead. Further back the drivers rightly behave themselves for the first few corners and they stay pretty much in grid order from the front to the midfield except Vettel takes Tsunoda for 8th. Further behind not sure, but who really cares at this point. For the record Stroll and someone else gained positions, but again who cares at this point. Perez has opened up a big lead going into the second lap, he is truly transforming from second driver lackey to genuine front runner.
ORDER – PER LEC VER SAI RUS GAS HAM VET TSU ALO
Lap 3 – Nicholas Latifi is penalised for a grid penalty, for his team being on the grid after they should be. This will probably be the last time he mentioned until he crashes later on.
Lap 4 – Sergio Perez is now over two seconds in front, and Max Verstappen is closing on Charles Leclerc, so the question on who is fastest on race day is quickly being determined. Daniel Ricciardo has a look at overtaking his teammate, both of their cars the slowest in a straight line. Ricciardo remains 12th but is close to his team mate for a change. A few laps later we find out that McLaren have enforced team orders. Probably fair enough on season status we guess, but Ricciardo does look a little quicker.
Lap 9 – Well Carlos Sainz’s season just got worse, there he is parked on turn four. Replays shows/sounds like something on his car has shit itself. Bad luck for Carlos, but might his misfortune turn into luck for his team mate.
Lap 10 – VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR – Charles Leclerc takes the plunge, as do Hamilton, Vettel, Tsunoda. This leaves the two Red Bulls and George Russell out, and helps Alonso and the McLarens. Charles Leclerc comes out third. Is it too early? Is it genius or a massive stroke of luck? Who knows, but now we have a race. With strategy added. Thank goodness too, as it was looking like an aero-killed stinker.
For the record Vettel got ahead of Hamilton during the pit stops, which will make one of them happy.
ORDER – PER VER LEC RUS ALO NOR RIC GAS OCO VET
Lap 13 – Some on track action – Vettel tries to overtake Ocon into turn three for 9th but locks a brake and goes straight on. He loses a few places despite a sweet spin to right himself, he almost loses the rest of his day rejoining the track as Yuki Tsunoda rounds the same corner. This leaves Hamilton to attempt to overtake Ocon. Cue the radio whinge soon.
Lap 15 – Max Verstappen closes on Sergio Perez and overtakes him into turn one for the lead. Perez didn’t defend too hard, so one wonders if there has been a hierarchy applied.
Lap 17 – If you can’t beat ’em, overtake ’em in the pits says Sergio Perez, and he pits for hard tyres from second place and comes out in third just ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes. Russell is having another very good weekend. Comfortably out-pacing Hamilton and heading for the the best of the rest result. Any more mechanical or driver incompetence ahead and he has a podium.
Lap 18 – Lewis Hamilton finally gets past Ocon for 9th. The Alpines have been a bit of a pain in the arse, with Ocon holding up Hamilton among others, and his team mate Fernando Alonso holding up the McLarens and Pierre Gasly. Alonso pits on lap 19 to give everyone some fresh air.
Lap 19 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead, will he stay ahead of Leclerc? Perez? The answer is no to Leclerc (+13 seconds) and yes to Perez (-3 seconds).
Lap 20 – Charles Leclerc is OUT!!! TV switches to a smoking Ferrari coming down the main straight. It blew coming out of turn 16, so he cooked that for a little while. Bad luck for Charles Leclerc again from the lead. Not the first time this season. Bad race for Ferrari with two mechanical failures and Red Bulls now 1-2.
Lap 21 – Lando Norris pits, which gives Daniel Ricciardo a chance to stretch his legs. He has to keep Pierre Gasly off his arse to start with though. Which he does for a lap. Gasly steals what is now fourth a lap later. Shame, and one wonder how those McLaren team orders stuffed the Australian. Still, being taken for fifth is better than battling for 14th.
ORDER – VER PER RUS GAS RIC HAM TSU OCO VET ZHO
Lap 24 – Guanyu Zhou retires his Alfa Romeo from a fine 10th place with what looks like an engine problem. That’s 3/6 Ferrari powered cars now, making up the three race retirements.
Lap 26 – Sebastian Vettel overtakes Ocon at the second attempt, after previously running down an escape road at the first attempt and losing a few places. Hamilton overtakes Ricciardo for 5th. And a flying Fernando Alonso overtakes Kevin Magnussen for 10th. Overtaking galore.
Lap 27 – Alonso approaches his team mate next. He’d better watch out, Ocon has form running into team mates, and at this circuit. He does climb to 9th at the end of the lap. Without incident.
Lap 31 – Not much action at the very front, but interesting to do a gap check for the top five. Well interesting may be overkill, but it’s at least something to discuss with the top five, and it feels like it is just an economy run from here.
ORDER (Gap) – VER (9 sec) PER (17 sec) RUS (21 sec) GAS (3 sec) HAM
Lap 33 – Anyone take a bet for all six Ferrari powered cars to retire? If you have you’re 67% of the way there at lap 33, with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas with Ferrari power pulling over with a blown engine. Talking of 67%, that’s about where this race is at right now.
Lap 34 – Virtual Safety Car deployed because of Magnussen’s car issue, so the top three pit for new tyres and stay where they were. Hamilton and Ricciardo pit too for their second and first stop respectively. Hamilton drops yo 6th, Ricciardo to 9th. We’ll see about McLaren team orders now we guess. The Australian does have five seconds gap to 10th placed Norris.
Lap 36 – Lewis Hamilton overtakes Yuki Tsunoda for 5th. He has 10 seconds to go to Gasly ahead with 15 laps to go. Further back Daniel Ricciardo is going quite fast too, a second a lap on Alonso in 8th and he’s only a couple behind the Alpine.
Lap 39 – Yuki Tsunoda pits after being showed a mechanical flag for a broken rear wing. It seems the Alpha Tauri’s rear wing is half broken, with half a flap opening up like DRS. The pit crew gaffer tape the rear wing, which has to be a modern F1 first.
Lap 41 – Max Verstappen, who leads by 16 seconds, is told to slow down a little by his team. He politely tells them to stick that up their arse. He’s probably worried about tyre failures that cost him a win last season.
Lap 42 – Lando Norris is catching Daniel Ricciardo for 8th, and is on the radio reminding his team of such. Ricciardo hasn’t made much inroads to Alonso and is half a second a lap slower than his team mate. A lot of team radio back and forths at McLarens as Norris and Ricciardo pleading their cases to staying in front of the other.
Lap 43 – Lewis Hamilton is right on Gasly’s tail for 4th, which will be close to a season highlight so far for the Englishman. Hamilton gets back at turn three on lap 44.
Lap 46 – Bit of intra team radio fun at McLaren with Norris wanting to get past his team mate so he could have a go at Fernando Alonso.
Lap 50 – Max Verstappen radios in with a small car problem, something small broken? Only a lap to go, so he’ll probably be right.
Last Lap – Max Verstappen cruises across the line on day made pretty easy for him. His team mate Perez comes home second, and a good weekend for Mercedes through reliability than pace in third and fourth. Some good news stories further back, who will feature in our Great/Grape. A disaster for Ferrari with no points for them and maximum for Red Bull.
FINAL ORDER – VER PER RUS HAM GAS VET ALO RIC NOR OCO
2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results
RACE RATING
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 10 / 10
Ferrari failures are a big talking point for the Championship. It’s all good and well to take pole positions, but a big fat DNF is no good, especially when they are usually punished by a Max-imum result for his arch rival. It’s two in three failures in the lead for Leclerc, and Sainz isn’t getting any more luck either. And does that lead to more penalties for more engines? And the Red Bull looked the quicker car in race trim. And Verstappen is plenty of points in front at the top of the championship. And Perez now sits second in the Championship ahead of Leclerc too. So yeah, plenty of Championship defining moments.
ON TRACK ACTION – 7 / 10
Plenty of midfield change of position kept the camera and late night viewers interested. Even at the front there was an overtake for first, albeit an intra Red Bull change of position, and the pit strategy mixed up the field nicely after the first 10 or so laps looked like it was going to be dull as.
ENDING 5 / 10
Not much happening at the front at all, with the final laps action limited to Lewis Hamilton overtaking Alpha Tauri car, and McLaren pit radio medleys.
OVERALL RATING 22 / 30
Not a bad race, and the Ferrari unreliability spiced things up, but it was pretty easy for Red Bull in front after Leclerc retired. There was enough midfield action to keep people interested and the McLarens battle at the end saved going to sleep early. The big thing is how important this race will end up in the Championship battle.
2022 SEASON RATINGS SO FAR
Want to know what we thought of previous races? Or which ones to to back and watch?
R1 Bahrain Grand Prix 26/30
R2 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 21/30
R3 Australian Grand Prix 16/30
R4 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 17/30
R5 Miami Grand Prix 19/30
R6 Spanish Grand Prix 17/30
R7 Monaco GP 24/30
Season Average – 20.0 / 30
2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Results
GREAT & GRAPE OF THE RACE
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
A real cruise and collect for Max Verstappen today. His nearest Championship rival blows an engine, he gets past his team mate for first place early enough, and is miles ahead at the finish. Leads the Championship by 21 points to his team mate who is now in second, and 34 points to Charles Leclerc.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
GEORGE RUSSELL – Another podium, and weekend where he outqualified his seven time World Champion team mate and finished ahead of him in the race quite easily.
PIERRE GASLY – Solid drive to fifth place, and that was about as good as it was going to get today. He’s had a bad run lately, so they are welcomed points.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Qualified just behind his team mate, and finished ahead of him in the race. Ricciardo went on hard tyres from the start, which opened up strategy for the Australian. He got the pit stop call right with luck from a Virtual Safety Car, but he struggled to make inroads into Fernando Alonso and only just stayed ahead of his team mate to claim 9th. That’s right, 9th and ahead of his team mate. Take that on current form.
LEWIS HAMILTON – A better result in 4th, which speaks for his season also, if 4th and behind his team mate again is a highlight.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL – A very good result in 6th, after losing a few places earlier in the race when he locked his brakes trying to overtake Ocon, which then took a handful of laps to do again.
THE GRAPE-EST – CHARLES LECLERC
A second car failure while leading in the last three races. That’s after being trumped by strategy and luck in Monaco. He is now behind Sergio Perez in the Championship and 34 points behind Max. And there could now be penalties too, ruining future F1 events.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – Another race with nothing to show. Outqualified by his pole position-winning team mate, then becomes a first and early retirement. At least it was car related and not his fault but it still sucks.
NICHOLAS LATIFI – Received a 10 second Stop-Go penalty for a starting grid infringement and then followed that up with another penalty for ignoring blue flags. He finished last of the runners too.
2022 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated.
