Valtteri fought back from P20 on Lap 1 to snatch P2 on the finish line at the Baku City Circuit. Lewis came home in P5, after a pit stop for a loose headrest dropped him from the lead. Lewis (139 points) trails Sebastian Vettel (153 points) by 14 points in the Drivers' Championship, with Valtteri (111 points) a further 28 points back in P3.
Toto Wolff: When the winner was at one point in P17, and the guy in second was a lap down and last after lap two, then you know it's been a crazy day! Our big picture from today is that we extended our lead in the constructors' championship by 16 points and confirmed we have a very fast race car. But that isn't what people will remember. For Lewis, it was a really eventful race. With the Vettel incident, I think the FIA has made its decision during the race and we can't rewind the race now. Emotions cook high in the moment but it doesn't change the relationship between our two teams. Then he was leading after the red flag when we had the problem with the headrest and had to change it; that cost him the win but we need to investigate what exactly happened there. It is never about blame; we look at the process to see what we can improve, then go to the next race better and stronger, and this is what we will do again as a team. But we should be encouraged with the pace Lewis had. As for Valtteri, it just goes to show you can never give up. He did a sensational job from a lap down and it was the perfect finale to steal P2 on the line. But nevertheless it could have been P1 and P3 today, so we need to learn our lessons and keep pushing for the next race in Austria.
James Allison, Technical Director: It was a bittersweet race, more sweet than bitter on balance given how much worse it could have been, but it hurts to cost ourselves the win because of a detail like a loose headrest. Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, both cars were fast and had the pace to convert the promise of their qualifying positions - and in the end we still brought home a useful haul of championship points. But we now can't wait to get back out on track in a fortnight's time in order to chase the full reward that the car's pure performance deserved this weekend.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "Certainly an action packed grand prix, and an unbelievable afternoon. It started with a bit of chaos with Daniel picking up some debris after the incident between Kimi and Valtteri that got stuck in his brake ducts, we had to pit him very early to get rid of that debris and it looked like he was out of the race at that point. At the time, Max was in a really strong position harrying for P3 and looked like he great pace in the car. Unfortunately a sudden failure in the engine eliminated Max from the race which is hugely frustrating. From then on we kept our focus with Daniel and he was coming back through the order with great passing moves and restarts. The team had a handle on the strategy and following the red flag he had another great start with a brilliant pass on both Williams. We had a little bit of luck with the penalties for Lewis and Sebastian and it gave us our first victory of 2017. An unbelievable tale of two halves today but fantastic for the team to score its 53rd grand prix victory."
Maurizio Arrivabene: I think that everything that happened today was clear to see for everyone, starting with the incident on the opening lap, with Kimi pushed into the barrier, then what happened to Sebastian on the restart lap after the Safety Car. We don't want to get into an argument but I think I can say that some decisions that were not entirely clear, never worked in favour of our team. We fought hard even if the results don't show it. Today, our car was on the pace and that was clear to see. The team demonstrated its strengths, from changing the engine on Seb's car on Saturday to the work done on Kimi's when the race was red flagged, to get it back out on track, despite the damage it had suffered. That's Ferrari for you. We let our actions speak for us. We will continue in that vein immediately, in preparation for the remaining twelve races starting with the Austrian GP, with even more determination than before.
Sahara Force India scored eight points in today's Azerbaijan Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon finishing in sixth place, while teammate Sergio Perez's promising race ended prematurely.
Robert Fernley: "It was a race of what ifs and what might have been. We had a quick car today and had a good chance of finishing on the podium - perhaps with both cars. Sadly we lost out during a safety car restart, which led to Esteban and Sergio making contact on the exit of turn two. Both cars were damaged and it effectively ended Sergio's afternoon. Esteban was able to stage an excellent recovery drive and was up in third place with just 13 laps to go. In the end the speed of the Ferraris and Mercedes proved too strong and he dropped to sixth, but it was important to pick up useful points. It was a shame to miss out on a podium from a race that saw so much drama, but that's the nature of motor racing. We will discuss what happened internally and come back stronger in Austria in a couple of weeks' time."
Lance Stroll finished third at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to become the youngest rookie to secure a Formula One podium, and the first Canadian to do so since 2001. Felipe Massa retired, while running third, with suspension issues.
Both drivers had a clean start to the race, despite a frenetic opening few corners. Felipe was able to gain three places and move into P6, with Lance maintaining position in P8. Felipe pitted under the safety car on lap 12, with Lance doing so on lap 13. They emerged in P5 and P7. Another safety car period ensued shortly after. On the restart Felipe was able to pass Raikkonen into Turn 1 for P4. Another safety car period followed. On the second restart of the race Felipe was able to move up to P3, while Lance jumped up to P4 as a result of the Force India's colliding with each other. Due to large amounts of debris around the track the red flag was soon waved on lap 22. When the race resumed Lance passed Felipe, but Ricciardo was able to squeeze past them both, which put Lance in P4 and Felipe in P5. Felipe, however, was suffering with suspension issues and began to fall down the order rapidly. The issue was unable to be resolved and he was forced to retire. Lance remained in P4 until Hamilton pitted on lap 31 to replace his loose headrest, which moved Lance up to P3. By lap 34 Lance was up to P2 as Vettel was handed a 10-second penalty. Lance maintained P2 right until the very last second of the race, when Bottas, with the help of DRS, was able to beat Lance across the line by a tenth of a second.
Felipe remains 10th in the Drivers' Championship, while Lance moves up to 12th. The team moves up to fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 37 points.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: Who would have expected that podium at the beginning of today? It's a terrific result for Lance to become the youngest rookie in history to score a podium. He's had a brilliant weekend. He's been faultless in every session, he's stayed out of trouble, didn't have any incidents and that carried into the race. He kept it clean, had good pace and managed the car and the tyres well. It was good battle at the end and we were very unfortunate to lose second place. The critical moment was that Valtteri got DRS on the last lap, that lost Lance second place. But we're very happy with third. However, the day was far from perfect. We got both cars in under the early safety car, and the red flag set us up well for what looked like a double podium, as we predicted there would be fallout from the Hamilton and Vettel incident. So we were feeling good at the red flag. But, Felipe had an internal suspension failure that emerged just after, which I'm very upset about. Without that issue we really believe that Felipe could have won the race today and we could even have had a double podium. Felipe's had a fantastic season so far and he's been a great support to Lance, so it's a shame that he can't celebrate with us today. But, we'll build on this and come back stronger next time.
Fernando Alonso steered his way past chaos, collisions, debris, penalties, multiple Safety Car periods and even a mid-race stoppage to finish ninth and score McLaren-Honda's first points of the season in a memorable, incident-packed Azerbaijan Grand Prix today.
The Spaniard ran as high as fifth as the leaders encountered problems in the heat of the afternoon, then looked set for eighth until being overtaken by countryman Carlos Sainz Jnr in the closing laps.
Stoffel Vandoorne finished 12th after driving an equally strong race. A flat-spot towards the end prompted a late stop for fresh tyres, and, while he was able to close a 17-second deficit to the two Saubers ahead of him, he couldn't quite get a pass to stick along the track's long final straight.
Eric Boullier: "The two world championship points we scored this evening are a validation of all we've worked towards in Baku this week. Since practice started, I've said that we'd need to take advantage of every opportunity that came our way in the race, and we did just that today.
"Both drivers raced with their customary vigour, but were also wary about getting caught up in any unnecessary incidents. Fernando drove a fantastic race, taking advantage of every opportunity, and I don't feel ninth position is really a fair reflection of his achievements today.
"Stoffel also posted an extremely mature drive, and, while he had the pace to close down on the two Saubers - and the chance of a point-scoring position - they were able to keep just out of reach along the long straight that offers the best passing opportunity around this tricky circuit.
"For the strategy team, the engineers and our hard-working mechanics, today's points are a welcome relief after an extremely tough weekend. They'll have put a spring in our step as we prepare for better fortunes at the next race in Austria."
Yusuke Hasegawa: "Despite the chaotic sequence of the race with so many incidents including the red flag, I think it was a successful day for the team. The drivers both drove faultless races and kept out of trouble to cross the finish line, and to top it off Fernando took home our first points of the season.
"Fernando showed off his impressive skill throughout the race, overtaking several cars on his way to the top 10. Stoffel also pushed hard, and almost managed to join Fernando in the points but just missed out in finishing P12.
"In addition to the drivers' skill behind the wheel, the team executed a brilliant strategy today, fully utilising every opportunity of Safety Cars and the red flag, so thank you to them.
"Although we still saw a big gap to the front-runners, it was a great result if we consider that we started from the back of the grid on what is a very power-hungry circuit where we had expected a challenging weekend.
"For the next round in Austria, we are scheduled to bring our updated Spec 3 PU for both cars following the successful test here in Azerbaijan. In the meantime, we will continue our development with our best efforts in order to continue closing the gap."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "First of all, I'd like to congratulate Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull for the fantastic win! As for today's race, Daniil started from P11 while Carlos, because of the three-place grid penalty from Canada, P15. Soon after the start, Daniil locked the front-left tyre under braking. Therefore, he had to go a little bit wider and when he rejoined the track he caused some troubles for Carlos, who spun and went back to last because of this. Daniil continued the race in twelfth and defended this position until he had to stop the car because of a complete electronic shutdown - we don't know the exact reason for this yet. It's a shame because Daniil could have scored good points. Carlos did a very good comeback, as he was able to overtake some rivals. The race was then red-flagged, which meant we could put on the supersoft tyres. When the race restarted, he overtook Alonso and he was catching Magnussen, finishing P8 in the end. The car performance in the race was quite good and, without starting from the back or if we hadn't had the problem at the start, I think Carlos could've finished in P7.
We knew from the beginning that both Canada and Azerbaijan are race tracks that are not in our favor but, nevertheless, we scored some points. Unfortunately, we've lost fifth position in the Constructors' Championship to Williams. Now we have to fight back but I'm positive that, earlier or later, we will be back in that position. We now go to Austria, where we hope to be prepared as well as possible in order to finish with both cars in the points."
A bounty of aggressiveness prematurely ended the day for many in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Sunday at Baku City Circuit, but cooler heads prevailed for Haas F1 Team. Kevin Magnussen delivered a strong seventh-place finish after starting 12th to notch Haas F1 Team's sixth point-paying effort of the season and its fourth straight. Teammate Romain Grosjean finished 13th after starting 16th.
The six accompanying points boosted Haas F1 Team to seventh in the constructors standings with 21 points, giving the American squad a three-point margin over eighth-place Renault. Sixth-place Toro Rosso is 12 points ahead. The six points also provided Haas F1 Team another milestone in its still young history with a total of 50 points earned since its debut in the 2016 Australian Grand Prix.
From the onset of the 51-lap race around the 6.003-kilometer (3.730-mile), 20-turn Baku City Circuit, drivers were bouncing off one another and the walls. And the contact was throughout the field, with dustups between the front-running Mercedes and Scuderia Ferrari drivers, intrasquad battles amongst Force India and Sauber, along with a host of mechanical issues - some self-inflicted - that created a topsy-turvy race before reaching its halfway mark.
A red flag after 22 laps to clean the entire track of the numerous bits of broken carbon fiber was a gift to Magnussen and Grosjean. The two drivers had worked their way up to seventh and 10th, respectively, and the red flag effectively gave them a free pit stop. New Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires were bolted onto each of their Haas VF-17s, allowing both to go the distance without needing to pit again.
When the race went back to green, Magnussen took full advantage of his fresh tires, simultaneously passing the Williams of Felipe Massa and the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg in turn one to take fifth.
Then, front-runners Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel had to pit. Hamilton needed his headrest reattached to his Mercedes and Vettel had to serve a 10-second penalty for turning his Ferrari into Hamilton during a previous Safety Car period. This bumped Magnussen up to third.
Magnussen held onto third until lap 38 when he was caught by the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and the Force India of Esteban Ocon, dropping him to fifth. A lap later, Vettel and Hamilton came upon Magnussen, jettisoning him to seventh. But with a healthy gap over the eighth-place Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr., Magnussen maintained his position through the finish.
Grosjean, meanwhile, was forced to pit on lap 37 to investigate a left-front disc issue. He was able to return to the race, but the lost track position was too much to overcome. In 13th, he was the last driver running at the finish.
Winning the eighth round of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship was Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bull driver won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after starting 10th. It was Ricciardo's fifth career Formula One victory, his first of the season and his first at Baku City Circuit. Ricciardo's winning margin was a stout 3.904 seconds over runner-up Bottas.
The championship battle between Vettel and Hamilton remains tight, with Vettel picking up two points on Hamilton to earn a 14-point advantage.
Magnussen and Grosjean are 13th and 14th, respectively, in the driver standings. Magnussen has 11 points and Grosjean has 10.
Guenther Steiner: "A very eventful race - a fantastic show all over the place. For us, it was a good result with seventh - our best finish this season. We're very happy for Kevin to achieve this. Romain had a tough outing. I hope, in a few more races, we'll forget about talking about brakes and just use them like everybody else. As a team we need to get on top of that, and we will. Then we can be consistently in the points with two cars. That's our aim. If races are happening like this, with all the events going on, we want to be there to pick up the crumbs. Not a bad day for Haas F1 Team."
Renault Sport Formula One Team experienced a difficult Azerbaijan Grand Prix with retirements for both Jolyon Palmer and Nico Hulkenberg at the Baku City Circuit. Jolyon suffered from a misfire on the way to the grid and this issue worsened until his retirement at the end of lap seven. Nico was running as high as fifth in what was a highly eventful race, however he clipped the wall and broke his front right suspension on lap 25.
Nico started the race from P13 on new Supersoft Pirelli tyres, changing to a new set of Soft tyres on lap 13 under the Safety Car, then new Supersoft tyres when the race was red flagged on lap 22. Following the restart, he retired from fifth position on lap 25 after clipping the inside of turn seven and damaging the front right suspension.
Jolyon started the race from P20 on a new set of Supersoft tyres. He retired at the end of lap seven with a technical issue.
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: "On a day like today, a double DNF is the worst that can happen to the team both in terms of race results and in terms of championship position. We need to understand and immediately address the technical issues that prevented Jolyon to even participate, and Nico to start higher in the grid this weekend. We saw a highly unusual and eventful Grand Prix today and we will do all we can to make sure that this will be our only double DNF of the season. The only positive note is that a Red Bull Racing car finished on the highest step of the podium, which, on a track like Baku, is a great reward to the efforts made in bringing extra power to our customers."
The Sauber F1 Team finished a turbulent and eventful Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the Baku City Circuit with one world championship point: Pascal Wehrlein ended the race in P10 while Marcus Ericsson became 11th. The Sauber F1 Team drivers started from P14 (Wehrlein) and P17 (Ericsson) into the 51 lap race, which had to be interrupted after approximately one hour due to debris on track.
A dramatic Azerbaijan Grand Prix was characterised by multiple safety cars and an extended red flag period in the middle of the race to sweep up debris from earlier incidents.
This meant that the one-stop strategy that would have been adopted by all the leading runners went out of the window, and instead teams had to react to changing circumstances. Nearly every driver made what they thought would probably be their sole pit stop under the safety car on lap 13. But under red flag conditions on lap 22 teams were allowed to change tyres, which meant that the race concluded with a 29-lap sprint to the flag, with all the drivers then using supersoft tyres.
Through all these incidents Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo emerged as the winner, while another stand-out performance was from Valtteri Bottas, who went from last to second, also using supersoft for most of the race.
Mario Isola: "It was an eventful and dramatic race, during which the best strategy consisted of reacting to events rather than following a pre-determined plan. The supersoft demonstrated both durability and performance, as shown by a race lap record that was more than three seconds faster than last year."
Truthometer
The one-stop strategy was discarded as soon as the red flag came out; otherwise most drivers looked set to implement it by stopping under the safety car from lap 13. With a free choice of tyres for the second half of the race, they all ran on the supersoft to the flag, making it effectively a two-stopper. Ricciardo followed a slightly different pattern to most: he started on supersoft, switched to soft on lap six while dealing with a technical issue, emerging 16th, then went back to supersoft after the red flag.
