PreviewWill the Azerbaijan Grand Prix be predictable or spectacular? The sprint race showed that Red Bull also looks extremely dominant on this circuit, but plenty of crazy things can happen in the narrow streets of Baku at the same time.
The feeling that Max Verstappen had expressed in the run-up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix came true in Baku at the end of Saturday. That sprint race is there to have more spectacle during a Formula 1 weekend, but according to the world champion it also takes away a lot of tension. Because normally on Sunday morning you are curious about the relationships in the race and you know that they could deviate considerably from the picture of qualifying. But if there has been a sprint race on Saturday, what to expect on Sunday is a lot more predictable.
And that could be read from Charles Leclerc on Saturday evening. The Ferrari driver had started from pole position, just as he will do in the Sunday race. But he actually had no chance at all to win. Sergio PĂ©rez had little trouble overtaking him and was able to drive to the eight points unthreatened. And that did not make Leclerc too hopeful for the main race in Azerbaijan, if he was at all. “We can’t change the car,” he sighed. “The sprint race has confirmed what we already thought: the Red Bull is still the better car in the race.”
View the summary of the sprint race
And so everyone assumes that the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan will produce a one-sided picture. One in which Verstappen, this time starting from P2 where he started the sprint race from P3, quickly passes Leclerc and Red Bull also wins the fourth race of the year.
But at the same time that is a scenario based on a clinical course without too many craziness. And if there is one thing that cannot be ruled out on the narrow street circuit in Baku, it is chaos. Because we’ve already seen that in the past few days. Crashes, red flags, controversy between Mercedes driver George Russell and Verstappen and steering errors. An accident is in a small corner in Azerbaijan and that can also shake up the race.
Nyck de Vries secretly hopes for it. The other Dutchman on the grid will start from P19 after his failed qualifying on Friday. But after an excellent sprint race, he hopes he will get the chance to take his first points of the season. It says everything about the expected spectacle in Azerbaijan. It could just cause an unexpected result. Maybe Ferrari won’t have to change the car at all for a surprise victory for Leclerc.
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