The first sprint race of the season saw Checo took what his race engineer called a “tidy” first Sprint win in Baku. When the lights went out at the start, Leclerc got away well from the front of the grid to take the lead. Checo matched Leclerc off the line and tucked in behind the Ferrari.
Max didn’t get the perfect start and he was quickly put under pressure by Russell. The world champion was hit by Mercedes’ George Russell going into Turn 2 after the start, sustaining significant sidepod damage and had to give way to the Mercedes as they headed onto the straight towards Turn 3.
Moments after, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda hit the wall at Turn 14. However, with a tyre from the Japanese driver’s car rolling along the track, debris across the surface, and Tsunoda – who pitted and was sent out again – limping around the track, the full Safety Car was released at the end of lap three.
The physical SC returned to the pit lane at the end of lap five. Leclerc managed the restart well ahead of Checo. Max on ther other hand ready at the restart and ambushed Russell just after they crossed the start-finish line. Max dived to the inside and powered past the Mercedes into Turn 1.
On lap 8, with DRS activated, Checo closed right up to Leclerc. And as they powered along the straight toward Turn 1 he swept past the Ferrari to take the lead. It was only two laps later that Sergio was out of DRS range of the pursuing Ferrari and invited Max into the hunt.
The Ferrari driver responded, though, and he briefly pushed his way back into DRS of Checo as Max drifted beyond a second of Leclerc as he battled the floor damage he sustained on the opening lap. Sergio kept his cool and was first across the line at the flag to take a superbly managed Sprint win.
Onto Sunday and the feature race, the Bulls continued their domination. At the start of the race, Leclerc took the lead ahead of Max and Checo as all of the front three on the grid got away well.
Max use DRS to edge closer to Leclerc and at the start of lap four, he opened his wing on the main straight and flew past the Ferrari drive to take the lead. It was Checo’s turn next and on lap six he replicated Max’s move and powered past the Ferrari to steal P2 into Turn 1.
However, Max was unfortunate when AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries stopped at the side of the track on lap 10. The Team immediately told Max to box but the Safety Car wasn’t released for another lap and when Checo got the quicker stop under the SC. The Mexican jumped ahead of the champion to take the lead.
The free stop under the Safety Car disadvantaged everyone who had pitted before the caution, and Max was among the drivers who lost ground. And when all of the frontrunners pitted under the SC, Checo led the race ahead of Leclerc, with Max now in third place.
The SC left the track at the end of lap 14 and Checo held onto lead while Max immediately put pressure on Leclerc. Heading in Turn 3 he dived down the inside and stole P2 from the Ferrari man.
The Bulls again began to draw away from the field and over the following laps the pair built a five-second gap over Leclerc. Checo was keeping Max at bay, however, and on lap 17 he was well over a second ahead of his team-mate. Max was closing though and a sequence of fastest laps soon brought the champion to the cusp of DRS range.
Checo was aware of his team-mate’s pace, however, and as Max attempted to close, the Mexican responded, pushing to a narrow 1.2 lead at half distance and then to more than two seconds as he found a comfort zone in clear air.
With the bulk of the field targeting a one-stop race the order began to solidify and with the small gap back to Max established, Checo settled into race management mode and after 51 flawless laps the Mexican crossed the line to take his sixth career win and his second Grand Prix victory on the streets of Baku.
Max handed the team its third 1-2 finish of the season with second place and a whopping 21 seconds behind Checo, Leclerc finished third for Ferrari.
After taking his third win of the season, driver Sergio Perez said: “It has been an unbelievable weekend, I am super pleased and I cannot say more about the Team, it has been a tremendous day for us and I am so proud of everyone.
“I believe I can be very good anywhere this season and now I am just thinking of Miami. There are a lot of races coming up and we must make sure we are on it.
“The Team enjoy calling me the King of the Streets, I am super happy for them all. They have been tremendous all weekend, from the sprint race yesterday through to the way we executed the race today, it was perfect.”
Bringing home a memorable team performance with his second place finish, driver Max Verstappen said: “Overall it was quite a good race. Of course, I was a bit unlucky with the Safety Car call, but I think in that second stint both of us were pushing flat out. We used every centimetre on that track and touched a few walls!
“It was a good Team result and there were a lot of learnings from this weekend to take forward to the rest of the season.
“We bought it home and a 1-2 for the Team was ideal, Checo had a great race and did very well today. I’m already looking forward to Miami and seeing what we can do there.”
Commenting on the team’s performance and start of the 2023 season, Team Principal Christian Horner said: “Checo absolutely excelled today. He had the pace and really controlled the race, he benefitted from the timing of the safety car but it was a phenomenal performance from him today and all weekend. Hats off to him.
He were unlucky with the Safety Car and the pit stop for Max. Sometimes things like that don’t go your way but that is racing and we will learn from it. Other than that it was an excellent performance from the whole team, another 1-2, our 25th!
Things are clicking for us at the moment and it sets us up well for next week but it is still early days, there are 19 races and 5 more sprint races in this long season. With each race comes moments to savour but just as many learnings, we take those and move to the next challenge, preparation for Miami is already well under way, see you at the beach!”
The Team now heads to Round 5 in Miami with 180 points, 93 ahead of Aston Martin who hold second ahead of Mercedes.