Sergio Perez was in ‘superformance’ mood all weekend in Azerbaijan. He won the sprint race, as well as the main race, and added quite a few rpm to his heart beat.
It was a popular win, well deserved by the modest Mexican.
Even Max Verstappen had to be happy, because it was a very fair result.
Try as he could, he could not top his teammate this time round.
In third and fifth positions, with something of a comeback surge, were the two machines from Maranello.
Charles Leclerc got pole position in qualifying and really deserved better in the race and Carlos Sainz also could have done better than his fifth place.
The old man of the race, double world champion Fernando Alonso, did his usual best to finish fourth in his British racing green Aston Martin.
You cannot keep the ‘tiger out of his tank’ – the super Spaniard always remains fast.
In sixth spot was a hard-trying Lewis Hamilton, but the very dark Silver Arrows are still unsilver like in their mechanical performance.
Lance Stroll, in the second Aston Martin, was in millionaire mood as he threw his car about all weekend, sometimes touching the wall, but kept the car on the island for a well-deserved eighth place.
The other Merc was right behind the similarly powered Aston Martin, as was the ninth placed Lando Norris in his Mclaren Mercedes.
Yuki Tsunoda made it home in the last point scoring, tenth position, in his Alphatouri Honda.
The two McLarens still need a wakeup call from Woking, as the new fast man, Oscar Piastri could also only manage 11th place.
It had been a tough weekend with no space to spare in the wall-to-wall track, which in my opinion was a super-fast version of Monaco.
Next week we carry straight on with the next race on the other side of the circuses world in Miami, which should be very interesting. Let’s fly to Florida.
Drivers: 1 Max Verstappen 93; 2 Sergio Perez 87; 3 Fernando Alonso 60; 4 Lewis Hamilton 48; 5 Carlos Sainz 34.
Team: 1 Red Bull 180; 2 Aston Martin 87; 3 Mercedes 76; 4 Ferrari 62; 5 McLaren 14.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Fever’s Facebook page
