Track Torque: Motor sport feast of highest order
At the start, Sergio Perez had his elbows out and outwitted Leclerc, who was the Prancing Horse sandwiched between the two Red Bulls, Verstappen in third and Sainz fourth, followed by George Russell and Pierre Gasly.
The eighth race of the 2022 Formula 1 season took place at Baku City circuit, Azerbaijan.
Qualifying was hectic but exciting with Charles Leclerc on pole and Carlos Sainz in fourth position in their Ferraris.
Qualifying in the top positions and then being followed by the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen in third and Sergio Perez in second with George Russell in his Mercedes in fifth position.
At the start, Sergio Perez had his elbows out and outwitted Leclerc, who was the Prancing Horse sandwiched between the two Red Bulls, Verstappen in third and Sainz fourth, followed by George Russell and Pierre Gasly.
Perez was in a hurry and opened a lead of two seconds by lap five, with Verstappen on Leclerc’s tail.
On lap nine the safety car was deployed as Sainz’s hydraulics failed and he stopped at turn four.
The race was red-flagged and Leclerc came in for his pit stop, which was very slow and he dropped to 10 seconds behind Verstappen.
The Red Bulls started to run away from the Ferrari of Leclerc with 40 laps remaining, there was a 12 second gap to Verstappen, who was two seconds behind Perez.
By lap 14 Verstappen passed his teammate Perez who pitted for new tyres and now was 18 seconds behind Verstappen.
On lap 20 Leclerc was forced to retire with engine/hydraulic problems which made Verstappen first, with Perez second and Russell for Mercedes third at the finish flag, with the ailing Sir Lewis Hamilton fourth in great back pain.
Gasly was fifth, Sebastian Vettel sixth, Fernando Alonso seventh, Daniel Ricciardo eighth, Lando Norris ninth and Ocon tenth.
We are looking forward to the next Formula One race in Montreal Canada, Gilles Villeneuve circuit this Sunday (19th).
* The 90th Le Mans 24 Hour race was run by 62 cars over a distance of 380 laps.
Results overall:
1 Car number 8, Hyper cars Toyota Gazoo.
2 Car Number 7 Hyper cars Toyota Gazoo fastest speed.
3 Car Number 709 Glickenhaus.
4 Car Number 708 Glickenhaus.
5 Car Number 36 Alpine Alf team.
GTE Pro (18 finishers)
Porsche Car No 91
Ferrari Car No 51
Ferrari Car No 52
Porsche Car No 92
Ferrari Riley Motor Sport
Chevrolet Corvette Car No: 64
Chevrolet Car No: 63
LMP 2 (18 finishers)
Jota Car No 38
Prema Orlen Car No 9
Jota Car No28 TDS X Vaillante
GTE AM
1 Aston Martin Car No 33
2 Porsche Car No 79
3 Aston Martin Car No 28
It was a good race with perfect weather and lots of spectators, the feeling is however, that the dates of the races F1 and Le Mans 24 hour should not clash in the future.
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