As in Barcelona and Monaco, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) failed to convert his pole position into a victory and had to give up on engine problem, during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won in front of his teammate, Sergio Perez.
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Son Muret des stands disassembled even before the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, this is an image that Ferrari would have gone well, Sunday, June 12. The Italian stable, whose pilots had started the first and third position on the grid, lost big points in Bakou, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, due to the abandonments of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc , for mechanical problems. Their main competitors of Red Bull, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, took the opportunity to climb on the first two steps of the podium, in front of the Mercedes of George Russell – and that of Lewis Hamilton, fourth.
With an abandonment due to a hydraulic problem for Carlos Sainz, and a second abandonment due to an engine problem for Charles Leclerc, the Grand Prix turned into a nightmare for Ferrari. The race had already started badly with the bad flight of the Monegasque, doubled by Sergio Perez from the start, and was still complicated as the red single -seats were lacking in rhythm compared to the Red Bull.
Already dropped by Max Verstappen in the streets of Bakou, Carlos Sainz could not defend his chances more than nine laps but triggered a virtual safety car which allowed his teammate to obtain a passage to the stands ” Free “then to recover the head of the race during the stops of the Red Bull.
Only Charles Leclerc did not take advantage of it for a long time, since a wide plume of smoke at the back of his car came to put an end to his podium hopes shortly before mid-race.
rid of their main competitors before halfway, the Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez Red Bull took the sea and win.
The reliability of the Ferrari engine questioned
The weeks follow each other and are therefore alike, since for the third consecutive race, after Barcelona (abandonment) and Monaco (strategic error), the Monegasque pilot does not manage to convert his pole position into victory. “The words are difficult to find, it hurts,” he reacted when he got out of his car, at the microphone of Canal+.
This new abandonment for an engine problem, as in Spain, also underlines the reliability problems of the Ferrari engine, especially as other single -seaters which are equipped with it, including the Alfa Romeo de Guanyu Zhou and the Haas de Kevin Magnussen, also abandoned in Azerbaijan.
French Pierre Gasly offers him his best performance of the season with fifth place. In addition to having seen a beautiful result escape him, Charles Leclerc also loses his second place in the pilot classification, still led by Max Verstappen, in front of his teammate and now new runner -up, Sergio Perez.