Sprint Race
Starting second, Perez slotted in behind Leclerc at the start and stuck with him through the opening lap, before the race was paused for a safety car period produced after Yuki Tsunoda hit the wall at Turn 14 on the opening lap.
This evolved into a full-blown safety car by the third lap, with proceedings restarting on the sixth lap once the debris was cleared from the track.
Leclerc let fly on the restart to stay ahead of Perez, leading the next two laps with the Mexican keeping tabs on him.
Sergio Perez overtook polesitter Charles Leclerc to take victory in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint race, taking the chequered flag with a 4.4s lead.
Verstappen was unable to make inroads into Leclerc and dropped outside of DRS activation for most of the sprint, only getting to within a second in the final couple of laps.
Russell claimed fourth ahead of Carlos Sainz, who had battled earlier on with Lewis Hamilton, and broke past the Briton after falling behind before the restart.
Fernando Alonso followed through in the same move to get ahead of Hamilton, as Lance Stroll claimed the final point after winning out in a battle with Alex Albon.
Feature Race
Perez got the better of his teammate once again as he completed the double in a lacklustre race.
Leclerc lead into Turn 1 on the opening lap but it wasn’t long til Verstappen got past him by Lap 4. Next Perez was soon behind Leclerc and got him. It was Red Bull 1-2 in the early stages of the race.
De Vries came to a halt on Lap 10 after hitting the barrier at Turn 4. It was a weekend to forget for the Dutchman.
The Safety Car was on track, and Perez who was tucked in behind it and leading the Grand Prix. Leclerc was further up the road with Verstappen in third after he pitted earlier and lost out because of the Safety Car.
We were racing again on Lap 14 and Alonso sneaks past Sainz down the inside at Turn 6. That move put Alonso up to P4.
As the race progressed nothing happened aside from a retirement from Zhou in the Alfa Romero and Hamilton pushing to get past Sainz for P5 it turned into a snooze fest as the Red Bull’s were striving at the top.
Perez went on to win his 2nd Grand Prix of the season with Verstappen 2nd, Leclerc 3rd. Alonso, Sainz, Hamilton, Stroll, Russell, Norris & Tsunoda rounding off the Top 10.
There is drama near the end as media crew was at the pit entry on the final lap as Ocon needed to make a pit stop. Thankfully no one was hurt.
