Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2017-06-25

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Event
Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Date
Sun 25th June 2017 (UTC)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
Formula 1

Season
2017

Round
8

Status

Location
Baku City Circuit

Video Highlights

Description

The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 25 June 2017 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. The race was the eighth round of the 2017 season, and was the maiden running of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. It was the second time that a race was held at the circuit and the second time that a Grand Prix was held in Azerbaijan.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel entered the round with a twelve-point lead over Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship, while Mercedes led Ferrari by eight points in the World Constructors' Championship. Lewis Hamilton started the race from pole. Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a crash in qualifying to claim his fifth career victory ahead of the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, while Lance Stroll became the first Canadian to stand on the podium since Jacques Villeneuve at the 2001 German Grand Prix, and the second youngest driver ever to finish on the podium.

Hamilton started in front, followed by Bottas, Räikkönen and Vettel. Daniil Kvyat went wide at turn 1. As he was returning to the track, his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. spun off, to avoid a collision. In corner 3 of the first lap, both Finnish drivers (Bottas and Räikkönen) collided, causing a puncture in Bottas's front right tyre. Vettel took advantage to seize the second place. Bottas was forced to stop in the pits, falling one lap behind the leaders.

Ricciardo pitted in lap 6 to clean off debris from his brakes. He rejoined in 17th place. His teammate Verstappen had to retire due to an issue with his engine on lap 12. Hamilton led Vettel until the first safety car was deployed on the same lap to remove the stranded Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. This safety car period allowed Bottas to unlap himself. On lap 17, racing resumed but another safety car was deployed almost immediately to clear more debris off the track.

During both safety car periods, Hamilton repeatedly complained that the safety car was moving too slowly. Vettel collided with Hamilton twice under the second safety car – first when he ran into the back of Hamilton, and second when he drove alongside Hamilton to protest what he believed was Hamilton's brake-testing him, and swerved into the side of Hamilton's car. Vettel was later handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for dangerous driving as a result of these incidents. The first collision damaged Vettel's front wing and Hamilton's rear diffuser. Racing resumed on lap 20, but shortly after the restart, the Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez collided and left debris on the track. The collision gave Ocon a puncture and dropped him to the back of the field. Pérez lost his front wing, and suffered a bend to a front left wishbone which forced him to retire after making his way to the pit lane. Räikkönen, who was following two Force Indias closely, got a puncture as a result of debris from the crash, and after the broken tire caused damage to the floor of his car as well as his rear wing, he too was pushed to his garage to retire. A third safety car was then deployed almost immediately, and the race was red-flagged on lap 22 so that marshals could clear the debris.

During the red-flag period which lasted over 20 minutes, teams worked on their cars. Force India replaced Ocon's tyres and Ferrari replaced Vettel's front wing. Mercedes worked on Hamilton's rear diffuser. Other drivers got out of their cars and talked to their engineers and team principals. The previously retired cars of Räikkönen and Pérez were also being worked on by their teams in their garages. Both drivers managed to continue the race at the restart, one lap down on everyone else.

After the track was cleared of debris, the race was restarted behind the safety car. Hamilton led at the restart from Vettel, Massa, Stroll, and Ricciardo. Ricciardo passed both Williams cars at turn 1 and settled into third place. Hülkenberg collided with the wall on lap 25 and was forced to retire from 6th place. On the next lap, Felipe Massa retired due to a broken suspension damper.

On lap 29 the headrest on Hamilton's car got loose. He initially tried to fix it himself by pushing it back into its position, but on lap 31 he was forced by race control to pit for safety reasons. Two laps later, on lap 33, Vettel served his 10-second stop-and-go penalty, rejoining the track in 7th place just ahead of Hamilton. Now Ricciardo was leading, ahead of Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Ocon. The group of faster drivers consisting of Bottas, Vettel and Hamilton started chasing the leaders, overtaking Magnussen, Ocon and Fernando Alonso, who complained that he could have won the race (presumably if he had a faster car). Raikkonen and Pérez were both given drive-through penalties since during the red-flag period their cars were being worked in their garages instead of the pit lane. Both drivers eventually retired from the race.

In the lead, Bottas, Vettel and Hamilton were catching up to Stroll who was running second. Hamilton asked his team if Bottas would help him overtake Vettel, but the team refused since Bottas was still trying to catch up to Stroll. The Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein briefly collided as they were fighting for 10th place, but both drivers managed to continue without major damage. At the chequered flag, Ricciardo finished first, taking Red Bull's first victory in the 2017 season. Bottas managed to pass Stroll on the start–finish straight at the end of the last lap, getting second place by mere 0.105 seconds. Stroll picked up his maiden podium finish in third. Vettel finished in fourth, Hamilton in fifth, Ocon in sixth, Magnussen in seventh, Sainz in eighth, Alonso in ninth (scoring McLaren's first points of the season), and Wehrlein in tenth. In all, nine different constructors scored points in this race.

As a result of the race, Vettel increased his lead over Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship to 14 points, while Mercedes increased their lead over Ferrari in the World Constructors' Championship to 24 points.

Reports

Result List

Result Description
1 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 51 2:03:55.573 10 25
2 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 51 +3.904 2 18
3 18 Canada Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 51 +4.009 8 15
4 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 51 +5.976 4 12
5 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 51 +6.188 1 10
6 31 France Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 51 +30.298 7 8
7 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 51 +41.753 12 6
8 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 51 +49.400 15 4
9 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 51 +59.551 19 2
10 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Sauber-Ferrari 51 +1:29.093 14 1
11 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 51 +1:31.794 17
12 2 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Honda 51 +1:32.160 18
13 8 France Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 50 +1 lap 16
141 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 46 Oil leak 3
Ret 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 39 Steering 6
Ret 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 25 Suspension 9
Ret 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Renault 24 Accident 13
Ret 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 12 Oil pressure 5
Ret 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 9 Electrics 11
Ret 30 United Kingdom Jolyon Palmer Renault 7 Engine 20

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