2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Previous←	2021 Monaco Grand Prix
Round	6 of 2021
Next→	2021 French Grand Prix
Race Details
Date	June 6, 2021
Race Number	1041
Official Name	Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021
Location	Baku City Circuit Baku, Azerbaijan
Course	Temporary street circuit 6.003 km (3.730 mi)
Distance	51 laps, 306.153 km (190.235 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Charles Leclerc Ferrari
Time	1:41.218
Fastest Lap
Driver	Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda
Time	1:44.481 on lap 44
Podium
First	Sergio Pérez
Second	Sebastian Vettel
Third	Pierre Gasly
Lap Leaders

The 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021) was the sixth race of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan between June 4 and June 6 2021.

Qualifying was beset by four red flag sessions, but it was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who took pole, with Lewis Hamilton starting second after having his Mercedes slow on Friday practice, with title rival Max Verstappen in third.

Leclerc led at the start, with Hamilton taking the lead by slipstreaming Leclerc a few laps later. A delayed pit stop release for Hamilton relegated him to behind the Red Bulls, with Verstappen and Sergio Pérez leading. The Safety Car was deployed after Lance Stroll had a tire failure and wrecked on the main straight. Then, with five laps from the finish, Verstappen suffered the same fate as Stroll, causing the red flag. At the restart, Hamilton locked up into Turn 1, dropping down the order while Perez was left to cruise to his second career victory. Sebastian Vettel gave Aston Martin their first podium in second (the 122nd and final podium finish of Vettel's F1 career), with AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly in third.

Background

The event from the previous season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the current season's running had been reinstated into schedule, with race officials announcing that the race will take place behind closed doors.

Heading into the sixth round Max Verstappen led Lewis Hamilton in the standings by four points following victory at the previous round at Monaco, with Red Bull leading ahead of Mercedes by a point.

Much of the talk in the build-up to the race was flexible wings used by rivals, including Red Bull, which gave them advantage on long straights. Ahead of Monaco, the FIA issued a directive as well as outlining a series of tougher tests on rear wings. The new directive is to come into force by June 15, the period between the Azerbaijan and French Grands Prix, with both Mercedes and McLaren strongly voicing their disapproval on the timing of the enforcement.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren F1 Team	McLaren	MCL35M	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
4	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	McLaren	MCL35M	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team	Aston Martin	AMR21	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	Alfa Romeo	C41	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
9	Nikita Mazepin	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	AlphaTauri	AT02	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing Honda	Red Bull	RB16B	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine F1 Team	Alpine	A521	Renault	E-Tech 21 1.6L V6t	P
16	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	Ferrari	SF21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team	Aston Martin	AMR21	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
22	Yuki Tsunoda	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	AlphaTauri	AT02	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine F1 Team	Alpine	A521	Renault	E-Tech 21 1.6L V6t	P
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	Red Bull	RB16B	Honda	RA621H 1.6L V6t	P
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W12	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
47	Mick Schumacher	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	Ferrari	SF21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
63	George Russell	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W12	Mercedes	M12 1.6L V6t	P
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	Alfa Romeo	C41	Ferrari	065/6 1.6L V6t	P
Source:

Practice Overview

The full practice results for the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix are outlined below:

No.	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:43.732	5	1:43.298	13	1:43.557	10
4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:43.996	8	1:43.018	8	1:43.011	6
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:45.415	15	1:43.881	15	1:43.585	11
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.774	18	1:46.983	20	1:44.054	16
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:44.943	11	1:43.220	12	1:43.826	14
9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	1:46.945	20	1:45.563	18	1:45.711	20
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:43.757	6	1:42.534	5	1:42.251	1
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:43.630	4	1:42.115	1	1:42.595	2
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:44.777	9	1:42.693	6	1:43.080	7
16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:43.227	2	1:42.436	4	1:42.778	4
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:45.234	13	1:43.812	14	1:43.682	12
22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:45.384	14	1:43.130	10	1:43.244	8
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:45.446	16	1:43.020	9	1:43.294	9
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:43.184	1	1:42.216	2	1:43.984	15
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:43.893	7	1:43.156	11	1:42.697	3
47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:46.899	19	1:46.095	19	1:45.282	19
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	1:43.521	3	1:42.243	3	1:43.006	5
63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.452	17	1:44.557	17	1:44.434	18
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:44.891	10	1:44.184	16	1:43.745	13
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:45.092	12	1:42.941	7	1:44.113	17
Source:

Qualifying

Q1

Q1 was red-flagged twice, with Stroll first crashing his Aston Martin into Turn 15, before Giovinazzi fell victim on the same spot moments after the restart. They were joined by Latifi, Schumacher and Mazepin in being eliminated out of the session.

Q2

Verstappen set the fastest time in the session, with Tsunoda putting a time nearly three-hundredths shy of the former's time, ensuring that the Japanese rookie progressed to Q3 for the first time in his career. The session ended prematurely as Ricciardo crashed his car into Turn 3. He was joined by Vettel, Ocon, Raikkonen and Russell out of Q2, the latter two's improvement runs interrupted from the red flag.

Q3

Leclerc benefitted a slipstream from Hamilton to set the fastest time early on, while Hamilton got to second fastest from a tow from Bottas, who could only wind up 10^th. Both Verstappen and Perez were only able to clock in third and seventh fastest respectively, with Gasly the best of the rest with 4^th fastest. The session was red-flagged for the fourth time when Tsunoda first crashed into Turn 3 with Leclerc's team-mate Sainz, who was following behind, spun into the run-off and damaged his front wing. Leclerc thus secured his 9^th career pole, with Hamilton starting alongside him after Mercedes' slow performance on Friday practice. The number of red flags deployed thus equaled the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix for the most red flags deployed in a qualifying session. Norris, who qualified 6^th, was given a three-place grid penalty for a red flag infringement during Q1, therefore demoted to 9^th.

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari		6	1:42.241		5	1:41.659		1	1:41.218	1
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1	1:41.545		3	1:41.634		2	1:41.450	2
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda		2	1:41.760		1	1:41.625		3	1:41.563	3
4	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda		7	1:42.288		8	1:41.932		4	1:41.565	4
5	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari		4	1:42.121		6	1:41.740		5	1:41.576	5
6	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes		5	1:42.167		7	1:41.813		6	1:41.747	9*
7	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda		3	1:41.968		2	1:41.630		7	1:41.917	6
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda		11	1:42.521		4	1:41.654		8	1:42.211	7
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault		15	1:42.934		10	1:42.195		9	1:42.327	8
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes		12	1:42.701		9	1:42.106		10	1:42.659	10
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes		10	1:42.460		11	1:42.224				11
12	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault		9	1:42.426		12	1:42.273				12
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes		8	1:42.304		13	1:42.558				13
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		14	1:42.923		14	1:42.587				14
15	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes		13	1:42.728		15	1:42.758				15
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes		16	1:43.128							16
17	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari		17	1:44.158							17
18	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari		18	1:44.238							18
NC	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes		19	No time set							19
NC	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		20	No time set							20
107% time: 1:48.653
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Norris received a 3-place grid penalty for a red flag procedure infringement during Q1.

Grid

The starting grid of the feature race of the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is outined below:

Show Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
		______________
Row 1	______________	1
	2	Charles Leclerc
	Lewis Hamilton	______________
Row 2	______________	3
	4	Max Verstappen
	Pierre Gasly	______________
Row 3	______________	5
	6	Carlos Sainz, Jr.
	Sergio Pérez	______________
Row 4	______________	7
	8	Yuki Tsunoda
	Fernando Alonso	______________
Row 5	______________	9
	10	Lando Norris
	Valtteri Bottas	______________
Row 6	______________	11
	12	Sebastian Vettel
	Esteban Ocon	______________
Row 7	______________	13
	14	Daniel Ricciardo
	Kimi Räikkönen	______________
Row 8	______________	15
	16	George Russell
	Nicholas Latifi	______________
Row 9	______________	17
	18	Mick Schumacher
	Nikita Mazepin	______________
Row 10	______________	19
	20	Lance Stroll
	Antonio Giovinazzi	______________

Race

Report

Before the race start, there was a minute's silence for the deaths of former FIA president Max Mosley, who died in between race weekends, and longtime McLaren shareholder Mansour Ojjeh, who died the morning before the race.

Perez and Vettel made good starts at the start of the race, gaining positions in the chain of racing cars. Leclerc, despite starting from pole position, was overtaken by Hamilton before DRS was enabled due to avoiding a tree branch at an earlier part of the circuit. Ocon suffered a power unit failure on the fourth lap, becoming the first retirement of the race. As Hamilton pitted, his pit exit was delayed to avoid an unsafe release upon Gasly. Verstappen and Perez later stopped, the latter's having a slower stop but still got ahead of Hamilton. The Red Bulls' stops meant that Vettel was promoted into the lead in Aston Martin. Vettel would later stop, handing the lead to Verstappen. Verstappen began to pull away as Hamilton stayed close within Perez.

With most of the racers using hard tires in their second stints, Stroll suffered an instantaneous puncture on Lap 31, requiring a safety car and blocking access to the pit lane. When the hazard was cleared, Alonso (P13), Giovinazzi, Russell and Schumacher made their tire change to softer compounds, whilst the leaders stayed out.

The continued use of hard tires proved to be disastrous for Verstappen, who suffered the second instantaneous tire puncture in the similar location as Stroll with five laps remaining, crashing in the grid start area and resulting in a red flag within a few laps. During this incident, Latifi received a 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to use the pit lane during the incident.

Just before the standing restart, Russell returned to the pits to retire the vehicle. With the extinguishment of the five lights, the cars commenced again, with Hamilton experiencing a lockup and driving into the drive-off at turn 1 and dropping to last, which became second-to-last after Latifi served his penalty.

Perez got his second career race win for the race, but had a breakdown in the lap towards Parc Férme. Vettel and Gasly obtained podium positions, the latter resisting a late charge from Leclerc. Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race (1:44.481), but gained no points for not finishing in the top 10.

Results

The full results for the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	51	2:13:36.410	7	25
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	51	+1.385	11	18
3	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	51	+2.762	4	15
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	51	+3.828	1	12
5	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	51	+4.754	9	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	51	+6.382	8	8
7	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	51	+6.624	7	6
8	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	51	+7.709	5	4
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	51	+8.874	13	2
10	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	51	+9.576	14	1
11	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	51	+10.254	20
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	51	+11.264	10
13	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	51	+14.241	17
14	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	51	+14.315	18
15	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	51	+17.668	2
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	51	+42.379	16
17*	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	48	Gearbox	15
18*	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	45	Accident/Puncture	3
Ret	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	29	Accident/Puncture	19
Ret	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	3	Power Unit	12
Source:

• * Russell and Verstappen were still classified as completing 90% race distance.

Milestones

• 9^th pole position for Charles Leclerc.
• The qualifying session equaled the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix for the most red flags deployed in a qualifying session.
• Second race victory for Sergio Pérez, equaling Pedro Rodríguez for the most race wins for a Mexican driver.
• First podium and laps in the lead for Aston Martin.
• Sebastian Vettel's final career podium finish.

Standings

With both title rivals failing to score, the top two positions remained on the top of the driver standings, Hamilton ending his 54-race streak of finishing in the points in every race entered and started. Pérez' victory saw him move up to third in the standings, with Leclerc's fourth-place finish pushing both Norris and Bottas down the order. Vettel and Gasly also moved up the order following their surprise podium finishes, pushing down Ricciardo. Raikkonen managed to regain his points following his penalty at Imola. In all, the bottom of the drivers' standings had a major shake up following the incident-filled race.

Red Bull extended their championship lead ahead of Mercedes by 25 points courtesy of the race win, while Ferrari were able to go ahead of McLaren with their combined finish. Despite Vettel's podium, Gasly and Tsunoda's finish meant that AlphaTauri had taken the 5^th spot in the constructors' standings.

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts +/- 1 Max Verstappen 105 — 2 Lewis Hamilton 101 — 3 Sergio Pérez 69 ▲2 4 Lando Norris 66 ▼1 5 Charles Leclerc 52 ▲1 6 Valtteri Bottas 47 ▼2 7 Carlos Sainz, Jr. 42 — 8 Pierre Gasly 31 ▲1 9 Sebastian Vettel 28 ▲2 10 Daniel Ricciardo 26 ▼2 11 Fernando Alonso 13 ▲2 12 Esteban Ocon 12 ▼2 13 Lance Stroll 9 ▼1 14 Yuki Tsunoda 8 — 15 Kimi Räikkönen 1 ▲1 16 Antonio Giovinazzi 1 ▼1

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts +/- 1 Red Bull Racing-Honda 174 — 2 Mercedes 148 — 3 Ferrari 94 ▲1 4 McLaren-Mercedes 92 ▼1 5 AlphaTauri-Honda 39 ▲1 6 Aston Martin-Mercedes 37 ▼1 7 Alpine-Renault 25 — 8 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 2 —

Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown.

See also

• F2 2021 Baku Sprint Race 1
• F2 2021 Baku Sprint Race 2
• F2 2021 Baku Feature Race

References

Images and Videos:

References:

V T E	Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Circuits	Baku City Circuit (2017–2019, 2021-present)
Races	2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024

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