Roundup of Sprint Saturday at 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as Sergio Perez triumphed in the first Sprint Race of the F1 season.
In a change to the previous Sprint weekend format, Saturday saw a Sprint Shootout Qualifying take place prior to the Sprint Race which saw Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc claim pole position alongside his GP pole position.
Perez though continued his street circuit trend as he triumphed in the Sprint Race to reduce his title deficit.
Sprint Shootout Qualifying
SQ1
Williams’ Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant headed the field as the pit light turned green with everyone only allowed to run one set of medium tyres in this session, as Albon set the initial benchmark time of 1m 45.472 which was quickly bettered by several drivers.
Leclerc went quickest once everyone had completed their opening run with 1m 43.372 and eventually finished fastest with 1m 42.820.
Some drivers meanwhile did slow laps initially but once everyone had delivered a clear flying lap by the ninth minute, the elimination zone compromised of; Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Nyck De Vries, Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas.
Out of that quintet only Norris survived after the red flag came out with just 25 seconds left on the clock, due to Sargeant suffering a huge rear-end incident as he slide into the barriers at Turn 15 trying to avoid Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Zhou consequently qualified 16th for the Sprint grid ahead of Bottas, Tsunoda, Gasly and De Vries who were also eliminated, although Tsunoda was just metres from escaping the drop when the red flag came out at the end of the 12 minute session.
Gasly meanwhile didn’t participate in the final minutes of SQ1 due to a turbo related issue on his Alpine car.
SQ2
Like in SQ1, drivers could only run one set of new medium tyres but with the session time reduced to ten minutes as several cars quickly ventured out.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was first out on track as he set a benchmark time of 1m 42.925 but Verstappen posted 1m 42.417 to go 0.508 seconds quicker, whilst yellow flags were out after Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg locked up and stopped at Turn 7 but he eventually got going again under his own power.
Once everyone completed their first flying laps with three minutes left, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Hulkenberg and already-eliminated Sargeant were in the drop zone.
As the checkered flag fell, only Russell escaped elimination at expense of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who qualified 11th ahead of; Hulkenberg, Ocon, Magnussen and Sargeant.
SQ3
SQ3 saw a further two minute time reduction with just eight minutes on the clock as drivers were only permitted one set of soft tyres, which meant that Norris was unable to participate after he used up his allocation of softs in Grand Prix Qualifying yesterday.
Perez and Verstappen were first out on track after heading to the pit exit early to seize track position four minutes before the pit exit light went green, yet the pair safely got away once the session commenced despite having sat so long in the pit lane.
Like in SQ2, Perez was the first driver to set a benchmark time as he posted 1m 41. 876 as the benchmark time ahead of Verstappen, who fell 0.264s short in the fourth minute.
Leclerc one minute later went fastest with 1m 41.697 to head the field ahead of; Perez, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton, Russell, Albon, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
Once the checkered flag fell, nobody could beat Leclerc’s pole time despite the Monegasque crashing at Turn 3, as he took pole position for the Sprint ahead of Perez, Verstappen, Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, Albon, Alonso, Stroll and Norris.
Sargeant meanwhile was ruled out of the Sprint post-Qualifying after Williams determined that too much damage had been inflicted upon his car to fix in time.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 41.697 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.147 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.290 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.555 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.590 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.805 |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.149 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.313 |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.367 |
| 10 | Lando Norris | McLaren | No Time |
| 11 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1m 43.427 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.379 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.661 |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.905 |
| 15 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | No Time |
| 16 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1m 45.177 |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.175 |
| 18 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.259 |
| 19 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.774 |
| 20 | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | + 3.003 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Leclerc made a clean start to lead Perez whilst Verstappen lost third to Russell at Turn 3 as Sainz and Hamilton sat in fifth and sixth respectively, whilst Alonso jumped Albon for seventh.
Tsunoda meanwhile clipped the barriers on the run to Turn 15 and lost his right-rear tyre which caused a Virtual Safety Car to be deployed, which became a full Safety Car on Lap 3 after the Japanese driver suffered suspension failure after making a pit stop.
Racing resumed at the end of Lap 5 with Leclerc fending off Perez across the following two laps, until the Mexican dived up the inside of Turn 1 on Lap 8 to take the lead.
Perez subsequently proceeded to sprint away to a dominant first Sprint win as Leclerc fought off Verstappen – who passed Russell on the restart to finish third ahead of the Brit in fourth place.
Sainz meanwhile finished fifth ahead of Alonso after the Spaniard jumped Hamilton the restart to finish sixth, whilst Stroll passed Albon into Turn 1 on Lap 12 to snatch the final point in eighth position.
Norris, Bottas and Ocon – who started from the pit lane – meanwhile gambled on the soft tyre but their tyre degradation ultimately proved too high, as they finished 17th, 16th and 18th respectively.
In the title race, Perez trimmed his deficit to Verstappen down to 13 points whilst Alonso remains in third place.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 17 | 33m 17.667 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 17 | + 4.463 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 17 | + 5.065 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 17 | + 8.532 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 17 | + 10.388 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 17 | + 11.613 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 17 | + 16.503 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 17 | + 18.417 |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Williams | 17 | + 21.757 |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 17 | + 22.851 |
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 17 | + 27.990 |
| 12 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 17 | + 34.602 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 17 | + 36.918 |
| 14 | Nyck De Vries | AlpahTauri | 17 | + 41.626 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 17 | + 48.587 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 17 | + 49.917 |
| 17 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 17 | + 51.104 |
| 18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 17 | + 1m 00.621 |
| RET | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 2 | Suspension |
| DNS | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 0 | Crash |