AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2022

Practices didn’t have a lot to report on.

Qualifying

• yellow flag for Lance Stroll hitting the wall but managing to keep going

• Moments after the first yellow for Stroll, they cut back and it’s Lance Stroll AGAIN hit the wall and now it’s a RED FLAG

• Out in Q1: Kevin, Albon, Latifi, Stroll, Lil Schu

• Seb has a crash but manages to keep going and there’s a suspicious fail with the brake and it’s only a yellow flag so session keeps going

• Lewis has been investigated for driving unnecessarily slowly hahaha

• Both Max and Charles are so close to the wall the commentators can’t even tell if they hit it or not. Turns out Max did, Charles might have

• Yuki does touch the wall

• Lando goes off but keeps going but it ruins his last good lap that he needed

• Out in Q2: Lando, Daniel, Ocon, Zhou and Bot

• Lots of small wall incidents and then right at the last second, Perez has a small issue in the garage before he is going to go out for the last lap so Max doesn’t have a slipstream and neither does Perez

• The Ferraris don’t have slipstream either

• Charles on pole!! Sergio second and Max third!

• Aw Charles forgot his hat for his post qualifying interview

Race

• all the teams look so nervous and they should at this track

• Perez gets a good launch and Charles locks up into the first corner but keeps himself into it and Perez gets into first and Charles in second

• Latifi gets a starting grid infringement for people working on the car after the grid was closed

• 9/51 SAINZ causes yellow flag for brake by wire failure and HES OUT OF THE RACE

• Charles pits first under virtual safety car and it’s a long stop about 5 seconds but still gets away well

• Max and Red Bull didn’t put under the short safety car before it quickly goes green again

• They wonder if people who pitted under the vsc will make it to the end of the race because it’s 42 laps left still and that’s long

• 14/51 Seb goes to pass Ocon for 9th and gets past him but locks up into the corner and then spins to get back in immediately

• 15/51 Max passes Perez for the lead!! Max is a second faster than Perez last lap

• 17/51 Perez pits and also has like an over 5 second too! Now George is right on his tail

• 19/51 Max pits and Charles gets the lead of the race but he has newer tires than Charles sooooo this is going to be stressful

• CHARLES ENGINE BLOWS OUT and HE HAS TO RETIRE FROM THE RACE! Double Ferrari DNF. Okay i don’t know what it was but I felt like something like this would happen after the early Sainz mechanical failure

• Then Zhou has to retire on a mechanical failure after a good race form him and is it engine related? Because then that’s the third Ferrari engine to retire by lap 24/51

• Seb trying to get past Ocon and has a weird vibration mid corner and gets past him the second time a lap later

• They play a terribly sad interview with Charles who is devastated but he says all perfect answers and it’s amazing

• 29/51 they play Hamilton complaining on the radio saying his back is killing him which is hilarious because the porpoising is so bad hahahah

• 33/51 now KEVIN’s engine blows and ANOTHER FERRARI engine blows this rage and it’s EXACTLY like what happened to Charles with no warning

• Kevin’s failure triggers a virtual safety car and Red Bull get stops along with Russell

• Daniel has a lockup into the pit lane

• 38/51 Black and orange flag for Yuki Tsunoda which is literally the first time I’ve ever heard of that and apparently it’s to order a damaged car to the pits for repairs, what the heck, but then he doesn’t pit the first lap he’s ordered to but does the next lap AND THEN THEY JUST PUT A TON OF GAFFER TAPE ON YUKIS WING AND SEND HIM BACK OUT, we literally were just watching like ????? And the FIA are mad about it and it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in a long time

• 41/51 Max says he wants to make sure the tires don’t get too cold and very politely talks with his engineer for advice on that

• 42/51 they tell Max NO MORE DRS this race for him, totally out of nowhere and this is not good to have more DRS issues for Max

• Ugh Hamilton gets past Gasly for fourth. Poo

• Latifi under investigation for ignoring blue flags and now he has a SECOND time penalty this race hahah

• Hamilton says "seats gone cold" and everyone’s like what does they mean

• Stroll retires for some mechanical thing

• 50/51 Max reports feeling a tiny piece fall by his feet but everything feels normal

• Lando isn’t happy with the McLaren team decisions about him and his teammate this race, which has been drama

• MAX WINS!! Sergio second and fastest lap! Russell in third!!

• There is some hilarious post race footage of taking forever too get out of the car and milking the bad back thing for all it’s worth. And like George is in the same car up on the podium and is completely fine soooo that is so ridiculous

• There are some amazing Dutch fans here wearing « beware the Dutch » shirts and waving Dutch Red Bull clogs!