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Live: F1 Azerbaijan GP commentary and updates

Minute by minute updates for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit.

The F1 Azerbaijan GP will commence at 3pm local time (12pm BST), with Charles Leclerc on pole for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Perez planted a late lap to usurp team-mate Max Verstappen from the front row, as Carlos Sainz begins the race from fourth.

George Russell was the leading Mercedes in fifth, and starts alongside Pierre Gasly on the grid in Baku.

By: Jake Boxall-Legge, Haydn Cobb, Tom Howard

Summary

  • Verstappen wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from Red Bull team-mate Perez. Mercedes' George Russell third and Lewis Hamilton fourth 
  • Virtual safety car deployed Lap 33/51 after Magnussen stopped on track with engine issue 
  • Leader, Leclerc retires with engine failure on Lap 21/51, Verstappen leads Perez 
  • Leclerc leads Verstappen on lap 19 after Red Bulls pit
  • Verstappen passes Perez on Lap 15/51 to lead
  • Sainz stops on track with a hydraulic issue at Turn 4, virtual safety car deployed Lap 10/51 - Leclerc pits, Red Bulls stay out
  • Perez grabs the lead at Turn 1 from Leclerc on the opening lap
  • F1 Azerbaijan GP begins at 12pm GMT (3pm local)
  • Leclerc pole from Perez, Verstappen
Leaderboard
  1. Verstappen, Red Bull
  2. Perez, Red Bull
  3. Russell, Mercedes
  4. Hamilton, Mercedes
  5. Gasly, AlphaTauri
  6. Vettel, Aston Martin
  7. Alonso, Alpine
  8. Ricciardo, McLaren
  9. Norris, McLaren
  10. Ocon, Alpine
Status: Stopped
And that's all from us - we're going to watch the end of Le Mans and rustle up some lunch. Check out our websites for the usual post-race round-up, and we'll see you next week for Montreal!
 
 
No full safety cars today, which is a surprise. Big loss for Ferrari, scoring a big fat zero for its efforts today.
Albon, who had been lapped by the leaders, has stopped on track immediately after taking the chequered flag.
Hamilton gets fourth, with Gasly fifth. Vettel gets his best finish of the year with sixth, ahead of Alonso, Ricciardo, Norris and Ocon.
20 seconds later, Perez crosses the line for second, as Russell gets another podium with third for Mercedes.
Max Verstappen crosses the line to win the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix!
Norris isn't happy about being asked to hold position behind Ricciardo. He's told it's because they held position in the opposite order during the first stint. "But that was for strategy, this is for position," Norris replies.
Verstappen's in that phase of feeling tiny issues in the end of the race, finding something loose in the cockpit under braking. He duly goes for fastest lap, but is 0.004s off Perez's benchmark.
It is still an Alonso-Ricciardo-Norris train but none of the trio are closing in on each other so it's become a stalemate.
Penultimate lap - Verstappen is 19.3s ahead of Perez out front.
Stroll is the latest retirement, as he pits with three laps to go due to "some strange oscillations".
"Seat's gone cold," Hamilton says over the radio. You've heard of squeaky-bum time, now it's numb-bum time.
The McLaren race is turning into an episode of Deal or No Deal. Where's Noel Edmonds?
Some McLaren deal-making going on, as Norris is told he'll be allowed to pass Ricciardo if he can't get by Alonso, so he can attack the Alpine himself, but if he also can't get by Alonso he'll have to let Ricciardo back by again before the end of the race.
Ferrari's already packing up and shipping off to Montreal - a miserable day for the Italian team.
That was a quick investigation, as Latifi gets a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. Not good.
Hamilton tries again on Gasly, but the French driver holds the inside for Turn 1. But Hamilton regroups, and powers past into fourth at Turn 3.
Latifi is under investigation for ignoring blue flags. He's currently last, 36.2s off Schumacher, after his earlier 10-second penalty, so this is a pretty painful race for the Williams driver.
Gasly gets DRS off of a lapped Williams to keep P4 into Turn 1, and produces a stern defence to keep Hamilton at bay into T3. He's told by engineer Pierre Hamelin to think about the points.
Hamilton's cut the gap to Gasly down, and is within 1.5s seconds of the AlphaTauri. Oh, now it's 1.1s. It's closing very quickly, you see...
Norris has asked his McLaren team to give Ricciardo the hurry-up. The Australian's pace has dropped off on the mediums and he is now three seconds behind Alonso.
Tsunoda is still in this race despite his taped-up DRS flap, but even if he gets to finish his chances for points look over as he is 20 seconds back on Ocon in 10th.
Red Bull ask Verstappen to take the pace down a bit, but the leader is worried about losing tyre temperature. "You're all right," comes the reply. "We do not want to use DRS at all," Verstappen is told later on.
Ricciardo is reeling in Alonso, which is also bringing team-mate Norris with him. With Tsunoda dropping down the order with his broken rear wing, Ocon has been promoted into the final points-paying place.
AlphaTauri has taped up Tsunoda's wing, but one gets the feeling the FIA won't like that one bit. He rejoins in 13th, ahead of Stroll.
And there's the meatball flag for Tsunoda - that's it for Yuki, running in P6. More heartbreak in this Azerbaijan GP.
Tsunoda's got a slightly broken rear wing - only one half of the wing was working as DRS was applied! He'll probably have to call it a day, just as it was looking so promising.
Perez sets a 1m46.046s, the fastest lap so far, but he's 12s down on Verstappen at this point.
And Hamilton immediately clears Tsunoda into Turn 1, and has a 10s gap to make up to Gasly ahead.
"Expect a one second advantage, maybe more," Hamilton is told regarding Tsunoda ahead, as the Japanese driver has pretty old boots at this point.
That Virtual Safety Car came at a good time for Ricciardo, as he's switched to the faster medium tyres and is in ninth, ahead of team-mate Norris.
VSC over, and we're back racing once more.
Hamilton comes out behind the non-stopping Tsunoda, as Gasly's stuck to not stopping as he comes around again under VSC conditions.
Out of the Ferrari-powered cars, it is just Bottas (12th) and Schumacher (15th) left in this race. They'll be sweating over every funny noise from their cars for the rest of the race.
Gasly elects to stay out as Hamilton also pits; Tsunoda also stays out as the AlphaTauri squad keeps the cars on track.
VSC deployed, and both Verstappen and Perez pit from the front. Russell does so too.
Magnussen stops at the side of the track at Turn 15 and the virtual safety car is deployed.

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