The team that began the 2022 Formula One season with a proper foot up on the competition will leave Azerbaijan with neither of their cars having reached the race’s halfway point.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc — who is yet to qualify off of the front row this year — took the pole for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but made a weak run off the line. He was overtaken by Sergio Perez under braking for the Baku circuit’s first corner. Leclerc immediately faced pressure from Max Verstappen, while Perez maintained his lead between one and two seconds.
Starting from fourth place, Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz wasn’t in the mix through the race’s opening laps. He was fast enough to defend from George Russell, but not fast enough to stay in touch with Verstappen — solitude was the word for the Spaniard’s first stint.
With Leclerc just over two seconds adrift of Perez at the start of lap nine, Sainz ground to a halt in the turn 4 escape road with a hydraulic issue. A nasty grinding sound could be heard as Sainz downshifted while turning into the corner, but no visible indication was present that anything was wrong.
Sainz being sat in the escape road brought out a virtual safety car, meaning all drivers were required to drop their pace by around 30% until the track was cleared. Leclerc used this opportunity to make an early pit stop for hard tires, as beating the Red Bulls outright on track looked rather unlikely.
When the race resumed one lap later, Leclerc sat behind Verstappen, aiming to lean on the hard tires’ durability to run Verstappen down on an alternate strategy. For all intents and purposes, it was working; Leclerc was pushing hard and setting noteworthy lap times.
Leclerc inherited the lead when Verstappen pitted on lap 19 and had the fastest lap to his credit as well. A slow pit stop for the Dutchman made his gap to Leclerc total 13 seconds, give or take.
Come lap 20, Leclerc’s race ended abruptly.
Looking down Baku’s massively long…
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