F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Perez Wins in Baku, Closes Championship Gap to Max Verstappen

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which took place on Sunday, was won by Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, with his teammate Max Verstappen finishing in second. Teammate Max Verstappen lost two positions to the safety car, which aided Perez. Verstappen had already taken the lead at the start of lap 4 after passing Ferrari's pole-winner Charles Leclerc. After Verstappen pitted, the safety car was called, and the rest of the field also stopped to change tyres. Although Verstappen quickly passed Leclerc, he dropped out of Perez's DRS range and was unable to close the gap. Just six points separate Verstappen and second place in the drivers' standings heading into the fifth race of a record-setting 23-race season in Miami. Five of Perez's six F1 triumphs (not including Saturday's sprint) had come on street circuits, including his victory in Baku (twice), Saudi Arabia, Monaco, and Singapore. His engineer called him the "king of the streets" over the team radio.

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F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Race Result

In reality, for Perez, this was his eighth career Grand Prix win. The Mexican driver is presently in second position overall for the year. He now holds the record as the only driver to win the race in Baku twice. Perez is now in second position, six points behind leader Max Verstappen, with 87 points.

After the race, Perez said he thinks he has a shot at the world championship after beating Verstappen in Baku, but he acknowledged that he still has a long way to go. After that, he said that he and Verstappen had done well for Red Bull in Baku. In the sprint race, Perez and Verstappen finished in second and third, respectively, behind only Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

Christian Horner, the head of the Red Bull team, has gushed over Perez, claiming he has been great all weekend and that he is particularly strong in Baku.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Alpine Pitlane Incident 

In addition, the FIA has taken swift action to prevent a repetition of the situation between Esteban Ocon's Alpine vehicle and a large crowd of spectators at the podium ceremony of Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

The Alpine driver reported having to slow down even farther than the pit lane speed restriction of 80 km/h due to photographers, officials, and bystanders swerving in and out of the path.

As soon as the race was over, the event was looked into by the Azerbaijan Grand Prix stewards, who are nominated by the FIA but operate independently for reasons of neutrality.

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Ocon was making his necessary pit stop on the last lap of the Baku Grand Prix, having run the whole race on the same pair of hard tyres.

Alpine had purposely kept him out on track for as long as possible in the hopes that a late safety car or red light would enable him to do the tyre change and remain in a points-paying position, he had been running eighth when he pitted. He came in 15th place.