Lewis Hamilton did not deserve to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he even admitted so after a frantic and chaotic race that was dominated by the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton struggled all race weekend to build a rhythm and lacked his usual composure, by his own high standards he spent most of the race seemingly tiptoeing around one the most unforgiving street circuits on the F1 race calendar as he watched championship rival Vettel build up a comfortable margin on lap one.

It was a different story further up the field as multiple collisions brought out the safety car, Raikkonen collided with Ocan, the Ferrari driver punted the Force India into the wall. Raikkonen pitted for a new front wing and was followed by Fernando Alonso who suffered a double tyre puncture on the right-hand side of his McLaren, as a result of a non-fault collision.

Saftey car in and many battles raged up and down the field as the tyres began favoring one team then the next. The fight of the day was between Red Bull teammates Ricciardo and Verstappen, this was epic wheel to wheel infighting around a very tight street circuit.

Ricciardo was behind most of the time but was faster than Verstappen, the Australian launched attack after attack only to be thwarted by a determined Verstappen. While Ricciardo gave his teammate plenty of room the two still touched on multiple occasions.

Then on lap 40 of 51, with Ricciardo charging down on Verstappen, the two crashed out of the race as Ricciardo attempted an overtake going into turn 1. Verstappen weaved one way and then under braking weaved the other way.

The other way was into Ricciardo’s path, who was committed to braking late, the inevitable happened and both ended the race in the run-off zone. The safety car was deployed and remained out longer after Grosjean spun into the barriers trying to warm up his tyres.

Finally and with just three laps remaining the safety car was brought back in, during which time Ferrari decided to pit Vettel, this moved him down to second and promoted Bottas into the lead with Hamilton lagging down in third.

Why Ferrari opted to pit Vettel is a mystery, he could have won had he not done so, nevertheless, he made the decision to go for the win at the restart. As Vettel attacked he missed his braking marker and overshot as he dived down the inside of Bottas going into turn 1.

Not soon after Bottas suffered a tyre puncture after running over debris on the track, this instantly prompted Hamilton into 1st. Vettel limped home into 4th after his do or die move flat-spotted his tyres and reduced his pace. Raikkonen, who started near last ended the race in 2nd.

Vettel’s move also promoted the Force India, driven by Sergio Perez, into third but the day didn’t belong to Hamilton, he looked bemused with the win which, in many ways, was gifted to him. As such he now leads the driver’s championship by 4 points.

Race Result:

Note – Magnussen received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.