2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Race 8 of 20 in the 2017 Formula One World Championship
Layout of the Baku City Circuit
Race details
Date	25 June 2017
Official name	2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Location	Baku City Circuit Baku, Azerbaijan
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	6.003 km (3.730 miles)
Distance	51 laps, 306.049 km (190.170 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:40.593
Fastest lap
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari
Time	1:43.441 on lap 47 (lap record)
Podium
First	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer
Second	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes
Third	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 25 June 2017 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. The race was the eighth round of the 2017 season, and was the maiden running of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. It was the second time that a race was held at the circuit and the second time that a Grand Prix was held in Azerbaijan.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel entered the round with a twelve-point lead over Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship, while Mercedes led Ferrari by eight points in the World Constructors' Championship. Lewis Hamilton started the race from pole. Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a crash in qualifying to claim his fifth career victory ahead of the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, while Lance Stroll became the first Canadian to stand on the podium since Jacques Villeneuve at the 2001 German Grand Prix, and the second youngest driver ever to finish on the podium.

Report

Free practice

Red Bull's Max Verstappen went fastest in first practice, setting a time of 1.44:410. He was followed by his teammate Daniel Ricciardo and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel in second and third. In second practice the Red Bull of Max Verstappen was fastest followed by Bottas and Ricciardo. Saturday's third and final practice was topped by Bottas, with Kimi Räikkönen second and Hamilton third. Bottas set the quickest time of all three practices with a 1.42.742.

Qualifying

Jolyon Palmer failed to set a lap time in Q1 due to a fire during Practice 3.

In Q3, Lewis Hamilton secured pole position with a 1:40.593, 0.434 seconds quicker than teammate Bottas in second, and 1.100 seconds quicker than Räikkönen in third. Lance Stroll out-qualified teammate Felipe Massa for the first time in the season. Daniel Ricciardo hit the wall and started in tenth.

Race

Hamilton started in front, followed by Bottas, Räikkönen and Vettel. Daniil Kvyat went wide at turn 1. As he was returning to the track, his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. spun off, to avoid a collision. In corner 3 of the first lap, both Finnish drivers (Bottas and Räikkönen) collided, causing a puncture in Bottas's front right tyre. Vettel took advantage to seize the second place. Bottas was forced to stop in the pits, falling one lap behind the leaders.

Ricciardo pitted in lap 6 to clean off debris from his brakes. He rejoined in 17th place. His teammate Verstappen had to retire due to an issue with his engine on lap 12. Hamilton led Vettel until the first safety car was deployed on the same lap to remove the stranded Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. This safety car period allowed Bottas to unlap himself. On lap 17, racing resumed but another safety car was deployed almost immediately to clear more debris off the track.

During both safety car periods, Hamilton repeatedly complained that the safety car was moving too slowly. Vettel collided with Hamilton twice under the second safety car – first when he ran into the back of Hamilton, and second when he drove alongside Hamilton to protest what he believed was Hamilton's brake-testing him, and swerved into the side of Hamilton's car. Vettel was later handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for dangerous driving as a result of these incidents. The first collision damaged Vettel's front wing and Hamilton's rear diffuser. Racing resumed on lap 20, but shortly after the restart, the Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez collided and left debris on the track. The collision gave Ocon a puncture and dropped him to the back of the field. Pérez lost his front wing, and suffered a bend to a front left wishbone which forced him to retire after making his way to the pit lane. Räikkönen, who was following two Force Indias closely, got a puncture as a result of debris from the crash, and after the broken tire caused damage to the floor of his car as well as his rear wing, he too was pushed to his garage to retire. A third safety car was then deployed almost immediately, and the race was red-flagged on lap 22 so that marshals could clear the debris.

During the red-flag period which lasted over 20 minutes, teams worked on their cars. Force India replaced Ocon's tyres and Ferrari replaced Vettel's front wing. Mercedes worked on Hamilton's rear diffuser. Other drivers got out of their cars and talked to their engineers and team principals. The previously retired cars of Räikkönen and Pérez were also being worked on by their teams in their garages. Both drivers managed to continue the race at the restart, one lap down on everyone else.

After the track was cleared of debris, the race was restarted behind the safety car. Hamilton led at the restart from Vettel, Massa, Stroll, and Ricciardo. Ricciardo passed both Williams cars at turn 1 and settled into third place. Hülkenberg collided with the wall on lap 25 and was forced to retire from 6th place. On the next lap, Felipe Massa retired due to a broken suspension damper.

On lap 29 the headrest on Hamilton's car got loose. He initially tried to fix it himself by pushing it back into its position, but on lap 31 he was forced by race control to pit for safety reasons. Two laps later, on lap 33, Vettel served his 10-second stop-and-go penalty, rejoining the track in 7th place just ahead of Hamilton. Now Ricciardo was leading, ahead of Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Ocon. The group of faster drivers consisting of Bottas, Vettel and Hamilton started chasing the leaders, overtaking Magnussen, Ocon and Fernando Alonso, who complained that he could have won the race (presumably if he had a faster car). Raikkonen and Pérez were both given drive-through penalties since during the red-flag period their cars were being worked in their garages instead of the pit lane. Both drivers eventually retired from the race.

In the lead, Bottas, Vettel and Hamilton were catching up to Stroll who was running second. Hamilton asked his team if Bottas would help him overtake Vettel, but the team refused since Bottas was still trying to catch up to Stroll. The Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein briefly collided as they were fighting for 10th place, but both drivers managed to continue without major damage. At the chequered flag, Ricciardo finished first, taking Red Bull's first victory in the 2017 season. Bottas managed to pass Stroll on the start–finish straight at the end of the last lap, getting second place by mere 0.105 seconds. Stroll picked up his maiden podium finish in third. Vettel finished in fourth, Hamilton in fifth, Ocon in sixth, Magnussen in seventh, Sainz in eighth, Alonso in ninth (scoring McLaren's first points of the season), and Wehrlein in tenth. In all, nine different constructors scored points in this race.

As a result of the race, Vettel increased his lead over Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship to 14 points, while Mercedes increased their lead over Ferrari in the World Constructors' Championship to 24 points.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	Car no.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:41.983	1:41.275	1:40.593	1
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:43.026	1:41.502	1:41.027	2
3	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:42.678	1:42.090	1:41.693	3
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:42.952	1:41.911	1:41.841	4
5	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:42.544	1:41.961	1:41.879	5
6	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:43.162	1:42.467	1:42.111	6
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1:43.051	1:42.751	1:42.186	7
8	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1:43.613	1:42.284	1:42.753	8
9	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:43.165	1:42.735	1:42.798	9
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:42.857	1:42.215	1:43.414	10
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:42.927	1:43.186		11
12	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1:43.489	1:43.347		151
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:44.029	1:43.796		12
14	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:43.930	1:44.267		13
15	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber-Ferrari	1:44.317	1:44.603		14
16	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1:44.334			192
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1:44.468			16
18	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:44.795			17
19	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda	1:45.030			183
107% time: 1:49.121
—	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	no time			204
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Carlos Sainz Jr. received a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Felipe Massa at the previous race.
• ^2 – Fernando Alonso received a forty-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit components.
• ^3 – Stoffel Vandoorne received a thirty-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit components and a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
• ^4 – Jolyon Palmer failed to set a lap time in Q1, and was allowed to race at the discretion of the stewards.

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	51	2:03:55.573	10	25
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	51	+3.904	2	18
3	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	51	+4.009	8	15
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	51	+5.976	4	12
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	51	+6.188	1	10
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	51	+30.298	7	8
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	51	+41.753	12	6
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	51	+49.400	15	4
9	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	51	+59.551	19	2
10	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+1:29.093	14	1
11	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+1:31.794	17
12	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda	51	+1:32.160	18
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	50	+1 lap	16
141	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	46	Oil leak	3
Ret	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	39	Steering	6
Ret	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	25	Suspension	9
Ret	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	24	Accident	13
Ret	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	12	Oil pressure	5
Ret	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	9	Electrics	11
Ret	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	7	Engine	20
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Driver retired from the race, but was classified as he had completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos.	Driver	Points
	1	Sebastian Vettel	153
	2	Lewis Hamilton	139
	3	Valtteri Bottas	111
1	4	Daniel Ricciardo	92
1	5	Kimi Räikkönen	73

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos.	Constructor	Points
	1	Mercedes	250
	2	Ferrari	226
	3	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	137
	4	Force India-Mercedes	79
1	5	Williams-Mercedes	37