Sergio Perez clinched a dominant victory ahead of Max Verstappen in a Red Bull one-two finish at 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc led from pole until he conceded the lead to Verstappen on Lap 4 with Perez getting past two laps later, only for a Safety Car to come out just after Verstappen pitted on Lap 11 which handed Perez the lead and ultimately victory.
Verstappen and Leclerc rounded out the podium ahead of Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, George Russell, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda.
In the driver standings, Verstappen with 93 points now leads Perez by just six points with Alonso still sat third but now 33 points off the title lead.
Red Bull extended their constructors’ championship lead to 93 points over second-placed Aston Martin, who now lead third-placed Mercedes by 11 points.
At lights out, Leclerc made a clean start to lead Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Hamilton and Alonso whilst Stroll leapfrogged Norris and Tsunoda into seventh, although Tsunoda was further demoted to tenth as Russell gained two positions to slot into ninth.
Up front, Leclerc struggled to fend off Verstappen and conceded the lead into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 4 once Verstappen got DRS, with Perez inflicting the same overtake two laps later as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly triggered an early flurry of pit stops.
De Vries though stopped at Turn 6 on Lap 10 with suspension damage after clipping the inside wall of Turn 5, which led the Safety Car to be deployed a lap later after Verstappen pitted from the lead.
Perez consequently inherited the lead ahead of Leclerc after making their first stops under the Safety Car, with Verstappen slotting into third ahead of Sainz and Alonso as Russell jumped Stroll for sixth.
The Safety Car period also meant that everyone had got rid of the medium tyres except for Ocon and Hulkenberg – who climbed to ninth and tenth after starting on the hard tyre from the pit lane after setup changes.
Upon the restart on Lap 14, Perez fended off Leclerc who quickly lost second to Verstappen whilst Alonso unexpectedly overtook Sainz for fourth at Turn 6.
Russell meanwhile found himself jumped by Stroll after making a sluggish restart before Hamilton who had made a bright restart from 10th as he swiftly cleared Hulkenberg and Ocon then his teammate for seventh on Lap 15.
Stroll replicated De Vries’ incident at Turn 5 on Lap 16 but escaped with minimal damage although he proceeded to briefly struggle for pace thereafterwards, during which he ran wide out of Turn 16 three laps later which cost him sixth as Hamilton overtook him at the start of Lap 20.
Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Bottas meanwhile made second pit stops whilst everyone else managed their hard tyres with view of going to the end, except for Ocon and Hulkenberg who were yet to pit.
Up front, Perez fought off Verstappen who eventually settled for second behind his teammate as Perez proceeded to clinch his sixth Grand Prix victory in F1, having also won yesterday’s Sprint race in a strong double for the Mexican.
Leclerc meanwhile fended off Alonso to complete the podium and denied the Spaniard a fourth straight third-placed finish this season.
Sainz finished fifth after surviving a late scrap with Hamilton whilst Stroll fought off Russell who pitted on Lap 49 to go for the fastest lap point, which paid off on the final lap as he posted 1m 43.370 to snatch the bonus point from Verstappen.
Ocon meanwhile pitted at the end of the penultimate lap which promoted Norris and Tsunoda into ninth and tenth, although the Frenchman narrowly avoided colliding with various crew members venturing towards the pit wall in farcical scenes.
FIA stewards subsequently admitted that they were ”fortunate that there were no serious consequences’ and expressed ‘regret’ at the incident, whilst promising tweaked procedures moving forward to avoid a repeat incident.
Perez meanwhile has cut his title deficit to just six points behind Verstappen as F1 heads to Miami, USA, next weekend.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 51 | 1h 32m 42.436 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 51 | + 2.137 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 51 | + 21.217 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 51 | + 22.024 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 51 | + 45.491 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 51 | + 46.145 |
| 7 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 51 | + 51.617 |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | 51 | + 74.240 |
| 9 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 51 | + 80.376 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 51 | + 83.362 |
| 11 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 51 | + 86.501 |
| 12 | Alex Albon | Williams | 51 | + 88.623 |
| 13 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 51 | + 89.729 |
| 14 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 51 | + 91.332 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 51 | + 97.794 |
| 16 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 51 | + 100.943 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 51 | + 1 Lap |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 51 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 37 | Mechanical |
| RET | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | 9 | Suspension |
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