BAKU: Sergio Perez drove a consummate race with help from the safety car to beat Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen and win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Perez took advantage of a safety-car entry that kept him in front of a pitting Verstappen to cut his teammate’s lead in the driver standings to six points.
Charles Leclerc took pole position on Friday – and aced the Sprint Shootout on Saturday – but it was Perez who took the spoils in Saturday’s Sprint and also Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Leclerc led the pair of Red Bulls off the line on Sunday afternoon and held the lead through the opening lap – while there were a couple of small collisions farther back, in the midfield.
Verstappen and Perez overhauled pole-sitter Leclerc in the early stages and proceeded to trade fastest lap times at the head of the field, with the defining moment of the race coming when a Safety Car was deployed either side of the Red Bull drivers pitting.
With Verstappen pitting under yellow flags brought out when Nyck de Vries stopped on track, and Perez coming in under a Safety Car that followed, the Mexican cleared his team mate and rejoined the action in the lead. (Formula1.com)
