Editor - Thanks to twctfwcautog for this - although with baby Pitstop waking up a I cut and pasted, I have yet to read!
Not that everyone kept going on about it, but apparently it was quite windy in Baku. Does that explain why we had so many crashes and incidents this year (as in previous years)? Baku's nickname anybody? "City of winds".
The chaos was mostly at the start and the end of the race with some also in the middle. The only predictable moment of the weekend - Vettel's third pole position in a row.
There was first lap chaos - Sirotkin punted Perez into Ocon (just in case those two weren't going to tango again under their own steam), then got caught in a Renault/MacLaren sandwich. The MacLaren piece of bread (Alonso) managed to limp his two-wheeled wagon back to the pits. Raikkonen then punted Ocon into the wall to make sure the two Force Indias definitely couldn't tango again (at least in this race). Cue the much-predicted safety car.
Verstappen re-defined "letting another car past" after cutting the inside of the corner and gaining an advantage, by immediately re-passing Hulkenberg to re-take that briefly negated advantage. Hulkenberg later put himself into the wall in protest (maybe). Verstappen moved Ricciardo aggressively aside and caused him to lose a place to Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg later put himself into the wall in celebration (maybe).
The main scrap was the continuing fight between the two Red Bull boys. Ricciardo eventually passed Verstappen after multiple attempts and even contact at turn one only to immediately lose the place in pitstops as the overcut(?) worked for Verstappen. Ricciardo was told "go on, do him again" and duly did, smashing into him in the turn one breaking zone. My first reaction was that Verstappen had moved twice but maybe Helmut Marko was right and it was 50/50. Anyone? Either way, no points for Red Bull. After the race, they both gave interviews that tried to appear contrite, not assigning blame and apologising to the team. Both clearly better drivers than liars. Let's hope they do better at the factory in front of everyone. Christian Horner was both angry *and* disappointed. DC was pleased he wouldn't be sharing a plane home with both of them in the end.
The safety car was deployed for the Red Bull clean-up, meaning pitstops for the leaders, and favouring Bottas who had not yet pitted. Allowing lapped cars to pass was taking too long for Alonso who clearly relished the idea of a ten lap run to the flag. As did we all. Then Grosjean inexplicably binned his Haas under the safety car. He said that he hit a switch on his steering wheel while warming the tyres which changed the braking, then a massive gust of wind caught him out. Try "my dog ate my homework" next time, Romain.
Eventually the safety car was withdrawn and we had a quick blast to the flag. Vettel went for glory from second and lost out a bit. Bottas was unlucky to hit debris and lose out a lot. At least it gave us three different cars on the podium for the second race in a row.
Some great drives and great results:
Sergio Perez in third - now the most successful Mexican driver ever.
Carlos Sainz in fifth - his best result since joining Renault.
Charles LeClerc in sixth - in a Sauber! Eh?
Lance Stroll in eighth - first points of the season for Williams.
Brendon Hartley in tenth - his first points for Toro Rosso.
twctfwcautog
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