Australian Formula One driver, under pressure, Daniel Ricciardo has finally returned to the points in a race dominated by Red Bull after the withdrawal of the two Ferraris.
Max Verstappen was shaken again when rival Charles Leclerc faltered in his Formula One title race on Sunday.
Verstappen extended its lead in the F1 championship by winning the Azerbaijani Grand Prix, its fifth victory of the season, following another early retirement from Leclerc.
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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen from the Netherlands celebrates on the podium. (Photo AP / Sergei Grits) (AP)
Leclerc started from the pole, immediately lost the lead on the first corner to Sergio Pérez, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, and then used a clever strategy to get his Ferrari back in front.
Leclerc regained the lead when he entered under the speed bumps of the “virtual security car” while the two Red Bull cars were left out.
Leclerc seemed ready to fight for victory, but the Monegasque driver’s car began to drag smoke on lap 20 of 51 and had to pit.
His engine had failed: Leclerc’s second retirement in three races.
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Charles Leclerc, of Monaco, driving blocks a wheel while braking while fighting for the position on the track with Sergio Pérez. (Photo by Mark Thompson / Getty Images) (Getty)
“It hurts. We really have to look at it so it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
“I really can’t find the right words to describe it, it’s obviously very disappointing.”
Verstappen had overtaken Pérez shortly before Leclerc’s failure and the reigning F1 champion secured his fifth victory in seven races.
Red Bull has won five races in a row and, although Leclerc has two victories this year, his last victory was in Melbourne in early April and his last podium was in Miami in early May.
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The winner of the Max Verstappen race in the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates with third place finisher George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes. (Photo by Dan Mullan / Getty Images) (Getty)
“These are races. It happened to me, it happened to a lot of people in the past. Unfortunately, it’s happening to Charles,” Verstappen said when asked if he had any sympathy for his rival’s difficulties.
“If I were in the same situation, I would be disappointed. I think it’s very normal.
“But it’s about how you do it, you always look at how to make things better. That’s what we did at the start of the season as well.
“And learn from it. You don’t like it, you’re angry, but we turn it around.”
Verstappen took the victory a year after heading for victory in Baku, only because a broken tire threw him against the wall as he led three laps to the finish.
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Netherlands Red Bull winner Max Verstappen on the right celebrates by sprinkling champagne with second-placed Red Bull driver Sergio Perez from Mexico on the podium after the Azerbaijan Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Baku circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sunday, June 12. 2022. (Photo AP / Sergei Grits) (AP)
There were more reliability concerns late on Sunday when Verstappen told his team that the car felt weird when braking, but that it could reach the finish line.
“You can never regain what you lost last year, but I think today we had an incredible pace in the car, we could really take care of the tires and cut them and go through the lead,” Verstappen said.
“But of course, too, maybe a little bit of luck with (Leclerc’s) retirement. However, I think our car has been very fast today and could have closed that gap.”
Red Bull was second in the race with Perez finishing second, while Mercedes was third and fourth with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Perez, who won in Azerbaijan last year, said Red Bull made the “right call” not to let him fight Verstappen for the win and said he had problems with worn tires.
Daniel Ricciardo speaks to the media before the race. (Photo by Dan Mullan / Getty Images) (Getty)
He was Ricciardo’s first top 10 since the Melbourne Grand Prix in April, where he finished sixth, and only his second final of the season ahead of teammate Lando Norris.
The McLarens finished eighth and ninth, with the young Briton hot on the Australian’s hammer crossing the finish line, after being ordered not to pass.
Ricciardo had been stuck behind Norris for much of the initial race, despite having more pace, in an attempt to protect the younger driver from the fastest cars further back.
Ferrari had a terrible day, as both Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. did not finish, as did the Ferrari-powered cars of Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen.
Lando Norris makes his way through the circuit. (Photo by Dan Mullan / Getty Images) (Getty)
It was the first time since the 2020 Italian Grand Prix that the Ferrari team had to pick up the two cars.
The fall in Ferrari’s reliability comes when Red Bull seems to have solved its own problems. Verstappen and Perez stopped in the first race of the season in Bahrain, Red Bull’s first race since bringing home engine production to 2022.
Verstappen leads the standings by 21 points over Pérez, while Leclerc drops to third place and is 34 points behind Verstappen.
The Mercedes driver, the British Lewis Hamilton, holds an umbrella before the start of the race. (Hamad Mohammed, Pool Via AP) (AP)
Seven-time champion Hamilton has complained of back pain from Mercedes’ tendency to bounce at high speed, and was holding his lower back as he got out of the car cautiously on Sunday after finish fourth.
“We’re definitely making some changes,” team leader Toto Wolff said.
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Pierre Gasly was fifth for Alfa Tauri and Sebastian Vettel sixth for Alfa Romeo.
Fernando Alonso of Alpine overtook Ricciardo and Norris to finish seventh, and Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon was 10th.