Bottas wins in Baku ahead of Hamilton, Vettel

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport claim a 1-2 victory in Baku

• Valtteri took his fifth career victory today – his second of the 2019 season and first at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
• Lewis came home in P2, completing a 1-2 for the team
• Today’s result marks the 25th podium for Valtteri with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
• Valtteri (87 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by one point from Lewis (86 points)
• Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (173 points) lead Ferrari (103 points) by 70 points in the Constructors’ Championship
• Stuart Green, number 1 mechanic for car #77, accepted the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team

Baku, 28 April 2019: There was payback in Baku for Valtteri Bottas as the Finn won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix one year on from being denied almost certain victory in the city due to a late-race puncture, as Mercedes finished one-two again, in the fourth round of the Formula One (F1) World Championship here on Sunday.

There was no repeat of that kind of drama in today’s fourth F1 race at the notoriously tricky street circuit and after resisting pressure off the starting line from team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Bottas delivered a faultless performance in a largely incident-free race to take the fifth F1 win of his career. Second place for Hamilton ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel made it four one-two finishes in a row for Mercedes.

When the lights went out at the start, pole sitter Bottas was immediately put under pressure by Hamilton who made an excellent start. The Finn defended well through the first few corners, however, and managed to hold his lead as the field swept up towards the Baku’s Old Town.

Sebastian Vettel held his starting third place, but behind him fourth-on-the -grid Max Verstapen was jumped at the start by Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez. Verstappen quickly responded and within a few laps he had closed up behind the racing Point’s gearbox. On the long pit straight, and under DRS, he blasted past the Mexican on entry to Turn 1 to reclaim fourth place.

Behind them Ferrari’s Leclerc was on a march. At the start, on medium tyres, he had dropped back to P11 but by lap seven he had worked his way back up the order to sit in P5, two seconds behind Verstappen. And on lap 10, the Ferrari driver took advantage of DRS and his now better-performing medium tyres to pass Max on the pit straight.

Like Leclerc, Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly had also started on medium compound tyres, though from the pit lane, due to penalties from earlier in the weekend. As soft-shod rivals around him pitted, the Frenchman was boosted up the order. He also maximised the opportunity the mediums gave in terms of performance and by lap 13 he had climbed to sixth place.

Vettel was the first of the frontrunners to make a pit stop, on lap 11, and the German’s move triggered a response from the other soft tyre starters at the front of the pack.

Verstappen was among those who dived into the pit lane, the Dutchman emerging in P6 behind his team-mate. He quickly closed on Gasly, and with the drivers on different strategies, the Frenchman sensibly moved across to put Verstappen in P5 once more.

At the halfway point of the 51-lap race, Leclerc, who had yet to stop, now led Bottas by just three seconds. Hamilton was a further 3.5s second back with Vettel three seconds behind the champion.

By lap 31, Bottas was just 1.1s behind leader Leclerc who was now holding the Mercedes up before his stop. That allowed Vettel to stay in touch with Hamilton and the German sat three seconds behind the champion.

Bottas finally made his way past Leclerc on lap 32, and was swiftly followed by Hamilton and Vettel. That was the cue for Ferrari to pit the Monegasque driver. He dived into the pit lane on lap 34 to take on soft tyres.

He rejoined in P6, behind Gasly. The Red Bull driver defended well for a couple of laps but on his ageing medium tyres there was little he could do against the Ferrari man and on lap 36 Leclerc, armed with fresh tyres and DRS got past.

Gasly was sixth again but with 30 seconds in hand over Pérez, looked safe for another solid points haul. It wasn’t to be however. On lap 39, he suddenly slowed dramatically and coasted off into a run-off area, his race ended by a mechanical issue.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed and when the track went green again, Bottas was firmly in control, three seconds clear of Hamilton, who was in turn 2.3 ahead of Vettel. Hamilton closed but with two laps to go he made a mistake and ran wide, handing Bottas his second win of the season.

Max took his third fourth place finish in a row ahead of Leclerc who grabbed the point for fastest lap after pitting for a new set of soft tyres in the closing stages.

Perez took sixth place for Racing Point, while McLaren saw both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in the points in P7 and P8 respectively. Racing Point also saw both its drivers score with Lance Stroll in P9. Kimi Räikkönen took the final point, having started from the pit lane.

Valtteri Bottas 
This victory feels really good. When you’re starting from pole, you hope for a straightforward race – the less drama, the better it is. I didn’t have the greatest start; after the wheelspin in China I was maybe just a little too cautious. Lewis had a better start so we went side-by-side into Turn 1 and 2; it was good, respectful racing between the two of us and I’m glad I could pull up in front of him. Lewis was very quick today and was able to put on some pressure at the end of the race, so I had to make sure to not make any mistakes. I’ve already said it on the radio after the race: ‘What a team!’ The level at which everyone is performing at the moment is very impressive, both here at the track and back at the factory, and I’m really proud of everyone. We need to make sure we keep delivering at this level.

Lewis Hamilton 
This is a great result for the team. I think this team is stronger than it’s ever been and it’s all down to teamwork. Both Valtteri and myself are pushing the boundaries of the car and are delivering, as are the team in the pitstops, the engineers, and everyone back at the factory. I don’t think we have ever performed at this level before and I’m really grateful for all the hard work from everyone. Baku is not my strongest race, it’s always been difficult for me. I came close to the win today, but not close enough. I didn’t get the job done in Qualifying and then I was a bit too cautious at the start. I also had an issue with the VSC and that made it tough to catch him up. But those are all ifs and buts; Valtteri drove a great race and deserved the win. It was great that the team let us race though. I’ll work hard to bounce back and pick up the performance for Spain.

Toto Wolff 
I’m really happy, this was another fantastic performance from the entire team. We didn’t make any major mistakes today and that’s what has won us this race; our car was quick, the strategy calls were right, the pit stops were executed flawlessly and the drivers didn’t put a foot wrong. We let the two drivers race today; we told them to take it easy at the beginning of the second stint because we didn’t know how long the tyre would last, but both at the start of the race and in the end they were free to fight each other. Both of them perform really well under pressure and neither of them made any mistakes today, so it was a calculated risk but it was good to see them race each other in a clean, respectful manner. I’m very pleased with the result and happy that Valtteri found some redemption after his bad luck here in Baku last year.

James Allison 
It wasn’t the crazy bumper-car rally that Baku can sometimes be, but for us it was a stressful, thrilling pleasure to manage a race on a tricky track with our drivers fighting tooth and nail at the start and then getting very close to one another again at the end. To manage a race like that, to finish first and second again and keep the momentum of our championship rolling – it’s been a dream start to the year and we couldn’t be happier. We just need to make sure we can make it all happen again in two weeks from now in Barcelona where we saw the Ferraris were very fast in winter testing.

2019 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Race
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.524
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 11.739
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 17.493
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’09.107
6 Sergio Perez Racing Point 1’16.416
7 Carlos Sainz McLaren 1’23.826
8 Lando Norris McLaren 1’40.268
9 Lance Stroll Racing Point 1’43.816
10 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1 Lap
11 Alex Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso 1 Lap
12 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1 Lap
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1 Lap
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1 Lap
15 George Russell Williams 2 Laps
16 Robert Kubica Williams 2 Laps
Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing
Romain Grosjean Haas
Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso
Daniel Ricciardo Renault