The sun has set a long time ago and I'm sitting in the kitchen in candlelight. It's almost midnight here in Finland. Writing is my therapy now.
There was bad news for Alfa Romeo Racing's Kimi Räikkönen already before the start. The Iceman had been excluded from the qualifying results due to a front wing flexibility issue. This meant, that Kimi was going to start to the race from the pit lane, alongside Red Bull's Gasly. Ferrari's Leclerc was the only top ten driver to start to the race on the medium compound, which gave the Monegasque a potential advantage in terms of the first stint. The lights out started a wheel-banging dual between the Mercedes teammates. Hamilton got a slightly better ignition from P2, making it alongside pole-sitter Bottas. They were driving side by side, but with mutual respect. Going into Turn 3, Bottas determinedly took his lead, leaving Hamilton behind. Sebastian followed the Silver Arrows in P3. It was a little surprising to see, that Racing Point's Perez in P5 put serious pressure on Red Bull's Verstappen. On lap 3 the Mexican made his move on the stubborn Dutchman, and with the help of DRS he snatched P4. However, the Dutchman's revenge took place some three laps later, as he attacked Perez on the main straight, claiming back his fourth place.
The pit stops were predicted to happen around lap 20, but Kimi came in already on lap 7. He switched to the medium rubber and re-joined the track at the back of the pack. Meanwhile, Bottas had built up a small gap to his teammate and was controlling the race. At this point Leclerc's pace was extremely consistent; on the medium Pirellis he was almost a second faster than race leader Bottas. The young Ferrari pilot was in P5, but he was definitely having a podium finish in his mind.
Sebastian was the first top driver to pit on lap 12. The German re-joined the track on a fresh set of yellow-marked medium Pirellis, behind Verstappen in P5. Mercedes were forced to react, and race leader Bottas was called in a lap later, for a similar tyre choice to Sebastian. On lap 14 it was Hamilton's turn to pit, and Leclerc moved to the lead. Towards the halfway point of the race, the Monegasque still hadn't pitted yet. His mediums were out-worn, and he was losing pace lap by lap.
On lap 30 the battle between the top three was extremely intense. Leclerc had only one-second gap to Bottas, and teammate Hamilton was only a second down on the reborn Finn. There were all ingredients for an epic battle for the victory, although Leclerc hadn't done his pit stop yet. However, with his dying tyres, Leclerc had very little chances to defend his lead against the Mercedes. On lap 32 Bottas attacked the Ferrari ace, snatching the lead back to himself. Hamilton repeated his teammate's move on a sequential lap, jumping second.
Meanwhile, there was a bizarre and even comic incident between Renault's Ricciardo and Toro Rosso's Kvyat. They were battling for positions, and they both missed the corner, ending up wide. Ricciardo was in a panic to re-join the track as fast as he could, so he ended up reversing into Kvyat's Toro Rosso! This silly mistake ended the race for both of them.
Sebastian had also closed the gap to his teammate, who was struggling badly with his dying tyres. There was no drama; Leclerc let his teammate past. The Monegasque pitted not until on lap 35, for a fresh set of soft Pirellis. He re-joined the track in P6, behind the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Gasly. However, a lap later Charles was already at Gasly's tail, and overtaking in the DRS zone was only a formality for the Ferrari's future star.
With 12 laps to go, Gasly's RB15 was suddenly hit with a technical failure, and the Frenchman had to stop his car on the track. This brought out virtual safety car. With only five laps to go, the battle between the Mercedes teammates evolved fiery. Hamilton had made it almost within DRS distance from the fighting Finn. There was no room for errors. Ferrari took Leclerc in for the second time, as the Monegasque was in a safe fifth place. On the fresh soft tyres he was hungry to take the fastest lap time and the extra point under his belt. With two laps to go, Hamilton was already within less than a second from his teammate. Valtteri kept his head cool, giving Hamilton no chance to attack him. On the second last lap, Hamilton made a small mistake, trying to chase his teammate, and this resolved the battle in favor of Valtteri. The flying Finn set the fastest lap time on the second last lap, only to be deprived of it by Leclerc on the penultimate lap!
Sensational Valtteri led Mercedes into the unbelievable fourth 1-2 this season. Sebastian completed the podium, which I was happy about. Verstappen finished fourth and Leclerc fifth. Against my expectations, Leclerc's pace on the soft tyres hadn't proved as competitive as on the medium ones. Perez has been on the podium twice in Baku, but this time he was left sixth. McLaren achieved an excellent result, as Sainz finished 7th and Norris 8th. Stroll completed a good result for Racing Point by finishing 9th. Kimi was the last driver to score points on the narrow streets of Baku. Kimi has now scored points for Alfa Romeo Racing in every race this season.
Valtteri has now made it back in the drivers' championship lead, but only by one point to his teammate. Sebastian jumped third in the standings, but he is already 35 points down on Valtteri. Verstappen, on the other hand, is only one point off Sebastian. In terms of the constructors' standings the battle isn't as thrilling. Mercedes have dominated the beginning of the season overwhelmingly, and they now have 173 points to the Red Team's 99.
Round 5 brings the F1 circus to Europe in a fortnight. Hopefully the new updates for the SF90 will help the Red Team to turn around the pecking order.
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