Sergio Pérez Wins as Red Bull Dominates Again

The only thing in doubt after 10 laps, really, was which Red Bull would win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday. But even that, by the end, was no contest.

Sergio Pérez outclassed both the field and his teammate, Max Verstappen, to win on Sunday in Baku. The finish was Pérez’s second victory of the season — Verstappen has won the other two events — and was the third time in four races that Red Bull’s cars had crossed the line first and second.

The results also left little doubt about Red Bull’s advantage over every other team in Formula 1 this season, when it has been fastest in practice, in qualifying and on Sundays. But the contest also set the stage for a long, hot summer of racing between the two Red Bull drivers; Pérez now trails Verstappen by only six points in the season standings.

“Well done, guys, we dominated this weekend,” Pérez told his team over the radio after his victory. “We are in the fight.”

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari grabbed a consolation prize by finishing third, just holding off Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin. It was Leclerc’s first podium finish of the year, but he — just like everyone else — was well beaten by Red Bull. Again.

Near Disaster

For the second consecutive race, Formula 1 narrowly avoided tragedy when people came onto the track before the race had ended.

In Australia it had been fans who encroached, slipping through gaps in the fencing to gain access to the track even as the cars were still racing at full speed. On Sunday, the scare came in pit lane, where photographers, crew members and safety officials who had come out of the garage area to watch Pérez and Verstappen cross the finish line were sent scrambling when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon entered the area.

The photographers were gathering in front of the area in pit lane where the podium finishers park their cars before the awards ceremony, and team mechanics — including those from Red Bull — were celebrating on the pit wall.

But the race, at that point, was not over. Ocon’s stop was not optional if he wanted to claim the points earned from his finish. Drivers must complete at least one pit stop to change tires during a race, and he had not been in yet.

Organizers of the Australian Grand Prix opened an investigation after the track incursions in Melbourne, which one acknowledged “could have been horrific.” But those appeared to be the fans’ fault.

A Formula 1 spokesman told reporters in Baku that they would do the same after the incident on Sunday, in which the people on the track were accredited photographers — most likely ushered onto the track by stewards — and crew members far more familiar with the dangers of racing.

Ocon afterward called it a “crazy moment” and one that could have been avoided.

“That is not something that we want to see,” Ocon said. “I don’t understand why we are starting to prepare the podium and the ceremony when we are still racing.”

“If I miss the braking point,” he added, “it is a big disaster.”

Sunday’s Race in Photos

When the Race Turned

Lap 10. Starting second, Verstappen had sprinted past Leclerc by Lap 4, and Pérez did the same three laps later. At that point, the only question seemed to be which Red Bull would win. And then Nyck De Vries crashed, and everything changed.

Red Bull had already told Verstappen to pit when the safety car emerged, allowing Pérez — who had slipped into the lead — to essentially save time by making his stop while the field was crawling around the track, and came out of the pit with the lead and a set of fresh tires. (Verstappen, by going in early, had lost much more ground and wound up playing catch-up all day.)

The timing was fortuitous — “I got a bit lucky there,” Pérez admitted later — but the race was never close after that.

What They’re Saying

• Pérez, on the 1-2 finish by Red Bull: “We pushed to the maximum today. We both hit the wall a few times. We were pushing out there. The way Max pushed me was really hard, but we managed to keep him under control.”

• Leclerc, on chasing Pérez and Verstappen every week: “Honestly the feeling is a little better, but when I see the gap, we still have a lot of work.”

• Verstappen, consistently the world’s most unhappy runner-up: “You keep learning. It can never be perfect all the time.”

Drivers’ Championship Standings

Red Bull’s biggest challenge over the next month may be to keep the peace between its drivers as they scrap for the title. That race just got a lot tighter: