When your favourite team and favourite driver finish outside the points, it’s disheartening and almost to the point where I didn’t want to provide this review. But as Lewis says, “An unfortunate day, a humbling experience and I’m so sorry for the team”. 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix highlights
Heartbreak in Baku for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
- Valtteri finished P12 after the W12 struggled for grip all weekend.
- Lewis records a P15 after an accidental brake balance setting change caused him to lock brakes on Turn 1 when vying with Perez for the lead following a dramatic race restart with two laps to go.
- The race was red-flagged after an accident for Verstappen on the main straight which provided the opportunity for a change of tyres and a two lap race for the finish once the action restarted.
- Max Verstappen (105 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 4 points from Lewis (101) and Lando Norris in P3 (66), with Valtteri (47) in P6.
- Red Bull (174 points) lead the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (148 points) by 26 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
Valtteri Bottas
Today in the race I was lacking pace, as I have been all weekend and it’s difficult to understand why. One big issue is the tyre warm-up, particularly the front tyres. On the hard tyres, it took almost10 laps to warm up and on the restart, we were on the back foot with cold tyres. I was trying everything I could but something just wasn’t right with the car for me this weekend. We need to work hard to figure out why and move on quickly from this.
Lewis Hamilton
An unfortunate day, a humbling experience and I’m so sorry for the team. We did a good job to be in the position we were in today, to be out of the top ten on Friday and come back was down to the hard work of the men and women in this team. When Checo came towards me after the restart, I turned the wheel and flicked a switch that shifts the brake balance and that caused me to lock up.
It’s one of the toughest moments I’ve had for a while – one moment we had all the points and the next we had none but for sure, we’ll regroup and come back.
Toto Wolff
In Monaco and here we didn’t have a car that was competitive, full stop. We have underlying issues – we are not getting the car in a happy window for the tyres. We know the deficit and we know we have gaps which we simply have to overcome but I have no doubt, this a team that is so strong and so angry, and we are going to turn that anger into positive form and come back.
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Hello. I’m Bob Aldons, the owner and editor of The Car Guy. The Car Guy is an independently owned car review website. I’m currently testing cars for Mazda, Nissan, Kia, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Renault, Hyundai and Genesis.
Through Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport I’m also writing about the 2021 Formula 1 season.
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Australian Results
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, finished in 12th position, a pretty poor result for the Aussie. Teammate Lando Norris finished on the podium in 3rd
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