Extended Highlights | 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Welcome along then from Baku for Round 4 of this Formula One World Championship. Whoever wins out today is going to have to put in a significant effort to come out on top in very, very tricky, gusty conditions indeed. And it's lights out and away we go. Vettel and Hamilton both get away well. And Kimi Raikkonen too, pressurising Daniel Ricciardo into Turn 1 as Vettel leads Hamilton, leads Bottas. Ricciardo, Verstappen running wide. Raikkonen then just behind him and he might have a look into Turn 2. So far, all getting away cleanly. And there's Ricciardo just getting ahead of Verstappen and there's damage. That could have been a front wing one of the Force Indias. There's contact down into Turn 2, Paul. Yeah, it looks like somebody's lost a front wing. You can see and it looks like there's a lot of debris flying around, Paul. There's also a lot of sparks as well. So it needs to cut in there as Raikkonen and Ocon in a collision. Ocon is out of the race. Kimi Raikkonen into Esteban Ocon down at Turn 3. Yeah, it's too bold. Raikkonen's lost a bit of his front wing as well. I'm not sure it's enough where they have to come to the pits. And you can see Sorokin's out of the race. He was obviously part of that, Crofty, like you were saying. Sergei Sorokin, who started 11th, has a big puncture there, as we can see. Down the inside, Kimi Raikkonen. Ocon squeezed in. There was no room. Did Ocon know he was there? He certainly felt it when the Ferrari ran into him. Yeah, Ocon knew he was there. He'd kind of blocked. He'd left the door open. I think with Ocon, you've got to give him a bit more space than that. Kimi's not going to back off right at the last minute. And you've got to let two cars get through. And this is the start from Sergei Sorokin's perspective. Yeah, so this is where we're going to see him run into the back of the Porsche India, I guess. Well, and I'd saw his teammate on the inside. And he's seen a gap there. But sadly, Sergio Perez put the brakes on a little bit before he really expected. Exactly. And that's where Perez has picked up the front wing damage. That's why he's had to come in. Whoa, that was so nearly a big accident there. Alonso now on the inside. And this is where, oh, and there is Sergei Sorokin parked up alongside Esteban Ocon. And we have a lap one incident, just as we might have feared. And we have the first safety car of this race as well. Raikkonen's coming in for his pit stop, as you can see. They'll change the front wing and they'll give him some new tyres as well. And I would imagine soft tyres going on. It is soft tyres going on. So they can, if they want to, run Kimi Raikkonen right to the end of the race. That is going to be some repair job if they can get Fernando Alonso back into this race. Yeah, getting in the pit box is going to be hard, though, isn't it? Sebastian Vettel weaving around, trying to get some temperature. Hamilton is sticking to him. And when Sebastian Vettel wants to go racing, they will go racing. But they're all queuing up behind. They're desperate. They're like thoroughbred horses about to start a five furlong dash because they know that there's a few places up for grabs if they can get this restart right. And Sebastian Vettel is going to have to defend from an absolute army behind him. What a very well-controlled, good move that was from Vettel. He has got the advantage out in front and he's got a bit of distance between himself and Lewis Hamilton. Bottas stays there. The two Red Bulls going for it. Diving down the inside, Ricciardo fends off Max Verstappen. And behind those two comes the Renault of Carlos Sainz ahead of Pierre Gasly. Verstappen's looking down the inside. Ricciardo has to back off and let him through. Otherwise those two are coming together. That's a brilliant move from Verstappen. Great respect for Ricciardo. But now Carlos Sainz is on Verstappen's tail and Sainz has managed to get ahead of Verstappen, who's got the inside line going through into Turn 3. Brilliant racing from all three drivers as the Williams of Lance Stroll and Nico Hülkenberg are fighting it out as well. Yeah, I'm not quite so sure that's going to go down too well on the Red Bull pit wall, given that you've lost out one place to the Renault getting in there. But a bold move by Verstappen. Sainz got very good tyre grip. I saw him in the background there, Gasly. He also picked up a position on the Williams. Hülkenberg's through as well. So it looks like the Renault's kick-starting the tyres much quicker. As we watch here, Verstappen taking to the escape road there, Paul. That was a bit cheeky, wasn't it? He's probably gained a bit, but not enough, because Carlos Sainz is now hot on his tail and Verstappen trying to come back at him. Sainz slams the door shut. Verstappen might go down the inside to get that place back again. And he does so going into Turn 1. Fourth place Verstappen, fifth place for Carlos Sainz. This will now carry on into Turn 2, as Hülkenberg has a look at Gasly. Behind these two, Ricciardo kind of sandwiched in, watching his wing mirrors and looking ahead too. Renault power versus Renault power. You can see the difference in the Autosoft. Carlos Sainz looking very racy. These two, obviously, teammates have got a bit of history. And it means a lot to the Works team to be racing against Red Bull and to be pushing them and pressuring them all the way as well. As we watch Verstappen ahead of Sainz, ahead of Ricciardo. It's two and a half seconds the gap now, three seconds the gap out in front between Vettel and Hamilton with Valtteri Bottas in third. The Renault in the background, it's got the slipstream on Verstappen. It has. And there's DRS enabled as well on this particular lap. We are on board with Carlos Sainz as Max Verstappen on the inside. This is a great blast towards Turn 1 that Verstappen has won out once again. Carlos Sainz desperate on those faster ultra soft tyres to get past Max Verstappen. But Verstappen defending superbly well. And we can watch behind Nico Hülkenberg on the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly. That was a slightly easier move. Hülkenberg is gaining already on Daniel Ricciardo. I think he might have him at the end of the straight. You can see there's a DRS open. Well, let's see, because he's right on his tail. He's pulled out from behind the toe and behind the slipstream. Sainz has done the same on Verstappen. Sainz is ahead of Verstappen. Ricciardo stays ahead of Hülkenberg. Ricciardo almost going into the back of his teammate. And he just overcooks it a bit into Turn 1. That gives Hülkenberg the jump and the move going into Turn 2. So Nico Hülkenberg now ahead of Daniel Ricciardo into 5th. Carlos Sainz having a great old scrap with Max Verstappen today. And he is finally ahead of him. On board then with Nico Hülkenberg. Max Verstappen is soon going to be eclipsed. We're at 10 kilometres an hour faster, Nico Hülkenberg, as he made the move past the Red Bull. But the Red Bull now picks up a toe and Verstappen can try and fight back. But Hülkenberg's got the inside line and Hülkenberg just manages to stay ahead. And Hülkenberg is now up into 5th place. Renault running 4th and 5th and Verstappen ahead of his teammate Ricciardo. It was looking good for him about three laps ago. Not so much the case now. Oh, no, Hülkenberg's got puncture. Has Hülkenberg been into a wall somewhere? It rather looks like he has. And at Turn 4, Nico Hülkenberg has come a cropper. And at Turn 5, he has had to pull over and he is out of this race. That is a massive shame for Nico Hülkenberg after a great start to this race. Oh, he's just locked the rears on the way in. It's game over. You've got to do it. He hits it pretty hard. Max Verstappen struggling. Ricciardo's passing him. Sergei Sorokin's passing Lance Stroll as well into Turn 1. And the two Red Bulls might have touched there as well. Verstappen aggressively defending against his teammate. There's no team orders down at Red Bull today. Verstappen stays ahead. I think team orders are going to come into this. It's a little bit too much, isn't it? These two touching. Danny, Rick's eager. I think Max needs to let him go. They're going to cost themselves too much here. Well, he's not letting him go this time. Ricciardo tried to pull alongside. Verstappen defended that one as well. Now for the next few corners as Verstappen locks up maybe a little bit there. Exactly the same place that Hülkenberg had it as well. I wonder if that's the tailwind and the wind. Was Verstappen a bit over-aggressive here? Oh, he was brave to go in there, wasn't he? I mean, he nearly wasn't stopping. Locked the inside wheel. I think he had to give Danny and Rick a bit more space than that. Of course, there's a tailwind down from 2 to 3. But you can see Ricciardo, he's taking the long way around because Max is making it difficult. Of course, all very fair race and wheel-to-wheel what you want to see. But, wow, that nearly took two cars out. There's Ricciardo running wide and that's where the two Red Bulls did clash. We're on board now with Kimi Räikkönen. Stroll is there for the taking. And that, for want of a better phrase, is a stroll past. How is Leclerc doing this? I'll tell you how he's doing this. He's driving brilliantly. Yes, Kimi Räikkönen has just got past him. But up until that point, Crofty, he'd been doing just as quick times as the Ferrari, if not slightly quicker. But it looks like Leclerc's starting to struggle with his tyres. And that's a nice move from Räikkönen up to P6. Last time a Sauber ran this high in a race was almost a year ago. Leclerc driving a super race. That is the Sauber of Marcus Eriksson, who is running down in 13th place. And he's just been passed by Brendan Hartley and Kevin Magnussen now as well. And Stoffel van Dorn, who's just pitted. It's not going to help the tyres too much, Paul, is it? An interesting place where it is. Both fronts locked. That's very costly. You can see Pérez picking up that toe. He's going to make a move on the Sauber into Turn 1. He is. Past the Williams, sorry. It's this Lance Stroll and the Williams. A lock-up for Lance Stroll. Sergio Pérez has pitted and is not in a bad position here at all. Now up into 8th place on the soft compound tyre, which he has run now for 18 laps. So he's starting to work his way through the field again. He's in the shadow of Räikkönen as well, isn't he? So Hamilton there. Big, big lock-up. Trying to eke out a stint as long as possible on those super soft tyres. Mercedes reacting. Look, they're all out the pit. They're coming out. I think they'll be in this lap. In theory, Hamilton should be able to get in. There's Bottas going past and get back out again. In front of Max Verstappen, who's currently running in 4th place. Nice tidy stop. Here's the battle of the Red Bulls again. Ricciardo. I think he's got it done this time, hasn't he? He's got to yield. He's got to yield, but he didn't yield that much. And he's now going to come back at Ricciardo again. He's going to try down the inside. Max Verstappen. Ricciardo has to give him space. Oh, not from the first time this afternoon. The two Red Bulls would have come together. They've hit each other once. They could have hit each other three times, quite frankly. Verstappen is in no mood whatsoever to yield to his teammates or to accept that his teammate has got past him. It's great racing, but if you're Christian Horner, you are not enjoying this for one second. Sebastian Vettel leads. And that gap between himself and Valtteri Bottas. He's in, he's in, he's in. 9.3 seconds. He's kept to the left and he's gone into the pits. Soft tyres, Crofty. Soft tyres have been fitted. So they're just shadowing what Hamilton's done. I think that's definitely the best way to do it. Maybe feeling like Bottas, just putting that charge in. They want to get in. Rear wheel's on. Drop it and away they go. Very good pit stop. What is happening with Verstappen and Ricciardo? Is Ricciardo getting quicker? He is getting quicker. He's closing up on Verstappen. He's alongside Verstappen. Is he going to make the move? Stick this time around. He locks up, but he does make the corner. That's a super move once more from Daniel Ricciardo there. And this time he's got it done early enough so that Verstappen can't fight him back going into Turn 2. If he doesn't get it done, he'll learn from it and make it stick when it happens. Well, Ricciardo gets past and laps Pierre Gasly and then comes into the pits. Ultra-soft tyres, more importantly. Thank you very much. That is Ricciardo having first choice, having preference because he managed to pass his teammate just three laps ago. Bottas has just set the fastest lap of the race. Ultra-soft tyres with a purple stripe going on to Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull. And it should be the ultra-soft tyres going on to Max Verstappen's Red Bull as well. And that's what he's been hoping and praying for for quite some time now. New, fresh set of tyres. Ricciardo didn't have a great outlap, though. It was a bit of warm-up, but he should be OK. Here's Verstappen. Oh, Verstappen's managed to beat him. He has. By going that little bit longer. Not sure he's quite close enough. Is he going to pick up that slipstream early enough? This is Max, I would imagine, not wanting Daniel Ricciardo to get anywhere near a slipstream. He needs to keep him over the left. But he's going to try and dive down. And suddenly they have crashed! They've gone into each other. Daniel Ricciardo, late braking, couldn't stop in time. Max Verstappen was right in front of him. And the two Red Bulls who have been touching and barging and banging all afternoon have had one bang too many. And that is big points thrown away. Adrian Newey walks away in disgust. Christian Horner can't quite believe what he's seen. And not since the days of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in Turkey have we seen two Rebels come together like that. And that is a debrief, Paul, that I think could go on very long into the night. Yeah, more importantly, Bottas could win this race if it's a safety car. Mercedes are ready for Valtteri Bottas. There is a safety car. Valtteri Bottas, has he missed it? I'm just wondering. No, he has made it. He has made it. He has got to the line in time so he can come into the pits. And this is the replay of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo wanted to go left. Verstappen blocked him off. Thought about going right. Put on the brakes. Max had the inside covered. Daniel, dummy-dump, went to go to the outside. Then Max came across. And by that point, it was too late. There's nothing he could have done to get out of the way. As Vettel comes into the pits, Sebastian Vettel has pitted as well as Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas straight in. And this is why Mercedes were leaving him out there as long as they possibly could. Because in the case of a safety car, he was in prime position to not lose as much time by pitting in comparison to those that have pitted earlier. Trust me, this race is not over yet. Oh, someone's crashed onto the safety car. It's the Haas. So Romain Grosjean, who was up into a brilliant position into sixth place, has now crashed behind the safety car. That's going to keep the safety car out for a lot, lot longer. No! Romain Grosjean, for the second time this season. Big points available on Australia. His wheels fell off. He's weaving around, trying to get temperature into the tyres. And what's happened here, Paul? Oh, he's just dropped it himself. Trying to get temperature. I mean, we've seen drivers do this behind the safety car before, but... What happened? I think Ericsson hit us. Once upon a time, maybe in about 1950, when the Formula One World Championship started, you could have got away with that excuse because there might not have been so many cameras around. Valtteri Bottas leads from Vettel and from Hamilton. We've got 51 laps, which we will get in only just in the two-hour window. And anything can happen from here. Is he going to do the same as what Vettel does, leave it right to that line, the safety car line? Where is he going to go earlier? Well, he's at least got a bit of experience from earlier on in this race. Oh, he's gone early. He's gone very early indeed. Has he caught them napping a little bit? Is it a double bluff? Hamilton. Hamilton's going to get the top. Is it going to pay for him or is it going to pay for Sebastian Vettel? Because look, on board with Lewis Hamilton now. He's catching up with the Ferrari. Has Bottas done his team-mate a favour here? Vettel goes to block and now tries to gain on Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton's going to dive down the inside. Raikkonen as well. Sebastian Vettel goes down the inside. And he locks up. And that's going to cost him one and two and maybe three places. Valtteri Bottas leads from Hamilton. Raikkonen on the inside on Sebastian Vettel. And he picks up a place on his team-mate as well. He was picking up that slim stream. Hamilton pulled off. Are the Mercedes going to be allowed to race each other now? But it's a nightmare situation for Vettel. As we see Vettel locking up there. Bottas says, thank you very much. I'll have that. As does Hamilton and eventually Raikkonen as well. Of course, he's going to keep going, isn't he? He's going to go all the way. There's no choice. But the Force India is going to be breathing down his neck. Sergio Perez will have the ability without a flat spot to get near to Sebastian Vettel here. Oh, and there's a puncture for Valtteri Bottas. He just ran across some debris. He ran across debris that was on the track. Hamilton takes the lead. Bottas in the lead has now got a puncture. Raikkonen ahead of Perez. Ahead of Vettel. Ahead then of Leclerc and Sainz and Alonso. And Stroll goes through as well. If you take it back, just when he was coming down the straight there, Crofty, at the pit entry, he ran across a bit of debris. So unfortunate for Bottas. He'd done nothing wrong. Your heart just goes out to him, Paul, because the strategy had paid off for him today. Look, there's this debris, Crofty. He ran straight over the second piece. And it looked like a piece of metal as well. You saw the sparks. Like his tyre stripped away from the rim, the wind stripped away from Bottas, who's not even going to finish here. And then Lewis Hamilton inheriting the race win. Another podium then for Sergio Perez in Formula 1. He'll become the most successful Mexican racing driver of all time with eight podiums. And he'll have a double podium in Baku on these streets that he really does quite like. Hamilton on his way to extending his points, scoring consecutive finishes to 29. Lewis Hamilton, who had been without a win in the last six races, his longest winless streak in the turbo hybrid era. Lewis Hamilton, who had to follow Sebastian Vettel, had to follow his teammate, is following absolutely nobody now. Lewis Hamilton is going to take the championship lead here in Azerbaijan on this Sunday evening. He takes the chequer flag now to win in Baku. It is Hamilton ahead of Raikkonen, ahead of Sergio Perez, who picks up what at one stage was a very unlikely podium. Force India can celebrate that, they're back in business. Sebastian Vettel comes home in fourth place ahead of Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc does finish in the points for the first time ever. Get in there, Lewis. Well done, mate. I think Lady Luck was on our side today. That's real bad luck for Valtteri, so, yeah, heart goes out to him. Unbelievable, guys. We did it once again, guys, once again. Once again. Well done, Charles, well done. Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Great race, Charles. P6 at the end. Fantastic work. Good job. Yes! What a 51 laps that was. Lewis Hamilton picks up then his 63rd win in Formula 1, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Another podium for Kimi, Sergio Perez with his eighth podium in Formula 1, and Sebastian Vettel then losing out and coming home in fourth place after attempting a move on Valtteri Bottas at the final safety car restart. And there will be a big debrief down at Rebel into that particular crash. And then Bottas, from winner to classified last in one puncture. Really quite an emotional race, to be honest. Valtteri did such an exceptional job today and really deserved to have the win. Also, Sebastian did a great job. I think it was really, really fortunate, so it feels a little bit odd to be up here, but I've got to take it. I mean, I didn't give up. I kept pushing, but definitely a very untidy race for me. Hamilton won't celebrate massively, but he will relax tonight and enjoy the feeling of being top of the championship once again. Baku has provided an incident-packed 51 laps. Perez, Raikkonen and Hamilton share the champagne on the podium. Hamilton now has the championship lead all to himself.