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Formula 1
Azerbaijan GP
F1 Azerbaijan GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race day
Live updates of all the action from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku
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Pit stop
Sainz pits from fifth, and rejoins in 11th, behind Raikkonen.
Yellow flag
Yellow flag - Sainz goes off into the run-off area at Turn 8.
Stopwatch
Verstappen's charging up on Hamilton, but doesn't have DRS at this juncture. Not yet, at least, as Perez sets the fastest lap so far.
Pit stop
Leclerc does indeed pit, and does indeed come out of the pits ahead of Raikkonen. Ferrari got that to plan.
Quote
"What are we doing?", Leclerc enquires. "We are on Plan A", his engineer adds, aiming to wait until the gap between Stroll and Raikkonen is big enough to pit into.
Crucially, Hamilton's found enough pace to build a break over Verstappen, keeping the Red Bull out of DRS range.
Leclerc's now a sitting duck for Perez too, and the Mexican streaks past the Ferrari into Turn 1 to claim third place. Still very clean so far.
Leclerc drops out of DRS range this time - which is fatal to his chances; Verstappen can blast past and claims second place!
AlphaTauri's Tsunoda passes Alpine's Alonso into Turn 1 to take P7.
Verstappen's arguably got the pace to get both Leclerc and Hamilton here, but Hamilton's keeping Leclerc in play. It might be that the Red Bull has to go for a two-for-one move.
Leclerc is still hanging onto Hamilton's coat-tails, which arguably is keeping the Ferrari ahead of Verstappen at the moment. The front three are also dropping Perez, who in turn is dropping Gasly and Sainz.
Stopwatch
The fastest lap is now frontman Hamilton's, a 1m47.462s. It's only going to get faster from here.
Retirement at Alpine - Esteban Ocon out. Puffs of smoke had been seen emerging from his Renault engine.
Stopwatch
Verstappen logged a 1m48.040s for the fastest lap so far, and had a mighty run on Leclerc into turn 1 - but the Ferrari clings onto second.
There was a bit of debris down at turn 15, which Verstappen had to avoid by cutting the chicane. The Dutchman is now going after the now second-placed Leclerc.
Hamilton grabs a tow from Leclerc through the final part of the lap, and cruises past the Ferrari to take the lead!
Looking back to the start, Sainz tried to get around the outside of Gasly, but the Frenchman put him out wide and this let Perez trickle past the Ferrari.
Giovinazzi is up five places on the first lap! Started 20th, now in 15th.
Russell has taken a very early pitstop to swap onto the hard tyres.
That's incredibly well-behaved at the start! Leclerc gets away very well, from Hamilton and Verstappen - as Perez carves his way past Sainz and Gasly to get up to fourth!
Norris drops down to 12th but stays ahead of team-mate Ricciardo.
Lights green
And the Azerbaijan Grand Prix begins!
The drivers are beginning to get to their grid spots now, ready for the start...
Schumacher almost stalled at the start but managed to get going.
Green flag
The formation lap begins around the Baku city circuit.
All drivers begin on softs, except from Raikkonen, Russell, and Latifi on mediums, and Stroll begins on hards.
Stopwatch
Five minutes, folks! We're trying to contain our excitement.
We had four red flags in qualifying yesterday - Stroll, Giovinazzi, Ricciardo, and Tsunoda/Sainz were the main culprits.
Sun
We say that, the only thing we can be sure of is that it won't rain - 0% chance, according to the FIA's figures. We have a track temp 40.5 degrees C, with air temp at 24.8 degrees C.
Leave your pre-race predictions at the door, anything can happen in Azerbaijan - and probably will.
Good afternoon everyone! We're just gearing up for the Azerbaijan GP in Baku - which begins in 15 minutes' time.
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