Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday with teammate Max Verstappen as he took Red Bull’s supremacy over the rest of the Formula 1 grid.
“Let’s go!” exclaimed the Mexican on team radio after having a successful weekend in Baku, where he also won Saturday’s race.
He added: “He’s been remarkable on this track, I don’t know about Azerbaijan, but he surely excels here. “
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Perez’s engineer told him on team radio that he is the “king of the streets” and with justification as five of his six F1 victories – not counting Saturday’s race – came on street circuits, twice in Baku along with victories in Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Singapore.
The popular Perez, who believes he can challenge Verstappen for the title, said: “Today worked for us (me), we controlled to keep the pressure on Max. I think it was very tight between us, we drove to the maximum. “Or we touch the wall a couple of times, but we (I) control to keep it under control.
Leclerc admitted that, for now, if anything, Red Bull is in “another league once it gets to the race”.
“In 51 laps it was not possible, they have much more speed than us. Everyone is working hard to see what we can do in the race to close the gap. “
After a forceful rendition of the national anthem, tire tires were removed and the lights went out with poleman Leclerc holding Verstappen at the first 90-degree corner.
The Dutch ace, however, had the Ferrari in his sights, to jump.
The inevitable happened in the fourth when the Red Bull star passed, leaving Leclerc to sandwich the Red Bulls.
Perez moved closer to the slower red rival and duly passed the sixth lap.
Verstappen stopped on lap 10, leaving Perez in the lead, but the protection car intervened to clear Nyck De Vries’ Alpha Tauri after crashing into a wall.
All the leaders took advantage of the protection interlude to make a loose hole that prevented with the resumption of the race a restart of the protection car on lap 13.
Perez did it with detriment as Verstappen gave him Leclerc’s biggest to leave the Red Bulls in front.
Halfway through, Perez was leading De Verstappen with Leclerc thirteen seconds behind, and thus ended up in a race that would possibly not be in the top sensible quintet of top fans of the season.
Fernando Alonso narrowly missed a fourth consecutive podium, with the 41-year-old Spaniard completing fourth place in Aston Martin ahead of Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, sixth ahead of Lance Stroll at the Aston Martin moment.
George Russell, who was awarded the point for the fastest lap, finished ninth for Mercedes with Yuki Tsunod’s Alpha Tauri completing the top 10.
Verstappen at ease when his teammate became the center of attention.
“We know it’s a very long season, you keep learning, you can never be the best all the time. “
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