Mercedes one-two . . . again
Twelve months ago, Valtteri Bottas was lamenting losing the Azerbaijan GP in Baku after suffering a puncture while leading with a couple of laps to go. His misfortune was Lewis Hamilton’s good luck, as the world champion went on to win the race.
In last Sunday’s race, after taking pole position, Bottas was determined to make amends for last year, and did so by taking victory ahead of Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
It meant the fourth one-two finish for Mercedes in as many races, and gives the world champion team a massive lead of 74 points over Ferrari in the Constructors’ title race. Bottas retakes the drivers’ championship lead, albeit by just one point, which he had lost to Hamilton when the latter won in Bahrain and China, after Bottas had won the season opener in Melbourne. Vettel is third, but already 25 points behind Bottas, the equivalent of a race victory.
Mercedes had arrived in Baku wary of the straight-line speed advantage the Ferrari appears to
have. But that advantage may be as illusionary as a David Copperfield magic trick. Certainly, in practice Ferrari were at times over a second quicker than Mercedes, especially the one driven by Charles Leclerc, but in qualifying it changed. Leclerc made a rookie error, hitting the wall near the Baku castle, and was self-critical, calling himself “useless” and “stupid”.
“No excuses. I’ve been useless. I will push to have a better tomorrow,” Leclerc wrote on social media. “I’ve been stupid, as I said on team radio, I’ve calmed
IT MEANS A LOT TO WIN. IT’S INCREDIBLE THE LEVEL WE’RE PERFORMING AS A TEAM, THAT’S WHY I WAS JUST SAYING AT THE GUYS I’M SO PROUD TO BE PART OF THAT.
down but I still think I’ve been stupid.”
Former Mercedes driver, and 2016 world champion, Nico Rosberg, watching from the comfort of his home in Monaco, where Leclerc hails from, came to the Monegasque driver’s defence, blaming his Ferrari team for sending Leclerc out on medium tyres when he had already had a time good enough for Q3.
“I don’t blame it on him, I blame it on the team because in Q3 they decided they were going to be even smarter and put on the medium tyre, the harder tyre,” Rosberg suggested. “It just went pear-shaped for them from that moment on. I was sitting on the sofa shaking my head like, ‘What are they doing now? Not on a street circuit, don’t mess about like that, the drivers need rhythm and everything.’
“Sure thing what happened afterwards, Leclerc was in the wall with his medium tyre locking up because of a lack of grip.”
The general feeling was that Leclerc should have been on pole, but instead, Bottas snatched it, and with Hamilton beside him, the Mercedes pair were able to control the race. Try as he might, Vettel didn’t have the pace to challenge them, while Leclerc, starting 10th, actually led at one stage, but only because he had not stopped, whereas the leaders had.
At the start of the race Hamilton had made a spirited effort to pass Bottas, the pair entering Turns 1 and 2 side by side, before Bottas edged away. Towards the end of the race, Hamilton got within DRS range and attacked again, but Bottas used a tow from the lapped Williams of George Russell to resist Hamilton’s charge and secure his second win of the season and fifth in his F1 career to date.
Hamilton felt that he lost the race in qualifying.
“I didn’t get the job done in qualifying, he [Bottas] did,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.
“And then in the race I was too friendly at Turn 1 and basically gave it to him. He drove a fantastic race and made no mistakes so he deserved the win this weekend.
“This is not our strongest race of the season. This has always been a difficult race for me so this is really a good result considering. It was a fantastic result for the team. Valtteri did an exceptional job this weekend and truly deserves the win. It was a bit of an under-par performance from myself so I just need to work hard.”
If Hamilton thinks it wasn’t a
strong race for his team, then given the result, the other nine teams must be feeling sick, especially Ferrari, because if they are quicker in a straight-line, than Baku, the second longest track on the calendar, was the place to demonstrate that superior pace and Ferrari failed yet again.
Vettel was rather despondent despite being on the podium, lamenting his poor first stint and his struggle to get the tyres to work because they were too cold and the car wasn’t working.
“I was really uncomfortable, inconsistent and couldn’t get a feel or confidence in the car,” Vettel explained. “It was crucial to keep third, crucial for Charles to get the fastest lap and snatch it away from the Mercedes boys. Still plenty of work for us but we need to maximise what we can. The last four races we were not quite there so we’re not the favourites going into Barcelona. We have some upgrades coming and we need to chase them down.”
Leclerc questioned why the team only brought him in for his first pit stop with just 16 laps to go.
“I believe there is a reason for [staying out long]. I need to look at the data before commenting because they have a lot more data than I do in the car,” Leclerc noted.
Eventually the team brought him in for a second stop with three laps to go just to claim the fastest lap on fresh tyres, otherwise Bottas would have taken the extra point. Leclerc eventually finished fifth, behind Max Verstappen, but some 69 seconds behind winner Bottas.
For the Finn, it was payback for
IT WAS A TOUGH RACE, EVEN THOUGH THERE WASN’T MUCH GOING ON AT THE FRONT.
the pain of losing in 2018.
“It was a tough race, even though there wasn’t much going on at the front,” Bottas said. “Lewis was putting pressure on all the time, so I couldn’t make any mistakes but, honestly, everything was under control, so I’m happy to see the chequered flag and get first place,” he told Paul di Resta.
“It means a lot to win. It’s incredible the level we’re performing as a team, that’s why I was just saying at the guys I’m so proud to be part of that.”
Bottas agrees that at present it looks like the title race is between himself and Hamilton, but he is not discounting the others in a long season.
“At the moment it looks like that, but it’s obviously a long season ahead, and we’re performing as a team on an incredible level in all areas, not only the car. I’m just focusing on my championship now, and for the moment, it’s Lewis the main challenge. But we’ll take it race by race.”
Best of the rest after Mercedes, Ferrari and the Red Bull of Verstappen, was Racing Point driver Sergio Perez, something of a Baku specialist, having been on the podium twice and finishing sixth this time. His teammate Lance Stroll, who also likes the circuit, having finished third with Williams in 2017, was ninth.
“It’s been a fantastic day,” Perez said. “I was actually focused on keeping the McLarens at bay. It was not easy to keep them behind and I had to drive carefully for the whole of the race. I am happy we succeeded in keeping our position, now we can celebrate a good day for the team with both cars in the points. We have an upgrade coming in Barcelona and I am looking forward to our performance there.”
Both McLaren cars were in the points, with Carlos Sainz seventh and Lando Norris, eighth. It was a shocking race for Renault, with Nico Hulkenberg retiring with a mechanical, while Daniel Ricciardo missed his braking point and took himself and Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat out.
For Williams, having finished third in this race in 2017, things can’t get much worse. In practice, Russell ran over a loose manhole cover, which caused extensive damage to the car, that the team can ill afford.
The championship is already Mercedes’ to lose, while former champions Williams last won the drivers’ title in 1997. Ferrari last won it in 2007, so some hard questions will be asked before they turn up in Barcelona for the Spanish GP next week.