Sergio Pérez wins Azerbaijan sprint race for Red Bull with Verstappen third

Sergio Pérez won the sprint race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for Red Bull with a strong drive on the streets of Baku. He beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc into second with the world champion, Max Verstappen, in third after having taken damage early in the race after contact with Mercedes’ George Russell, who was fourth. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fifth with Lewis Hamilton in seventh.

In an ominous indicator for Sunday’s grand prix when the drag reduction system was enabled, Leclerc who had started from pole could do nothing to hold off Pérez as he blasted down the straight into the lead. Leclerc will start from pole with Verstappen alongside him and with a healthy car the Dutchman will be expectant of being able to similarly claim the lead.

Pérez executed perfectly on a testing track where he won before in 2021. This is his first sprint race victory, after qualifying in second place for the race. Having won once in Saudi Arabia this season it will be another huge confidence boost for the Mexican and another strong statement of intent from him and Red Bull after a dominant start to the season. His team remains unbeaten in 2023. Verstappen leads his Red Bull teammate, Pérez, by 13 points in the world championship, with Fernando Alonso in third.

F1 has adopted its new format for sprint race weekends in Baku, with qualifying for the grand prix on Friday and Saturday’s sprint race was preceded by a special sprint shootout qualifying session in the morning to decide its grid. Run to the same structure as usual qualifying but with each session truncated down to 30 minutes of track time. The events on a Saturday are now standalone and have no bearing on the GP, but points are still awarded for the sprint from eight to one for