Formula 1 six years ago today: Baku sinks into F1 chaos

The primary look of Formulation 1 in Baku in 2016 brought on yawning boredom. The drowsy debut of the road circuit within the capital of Azerbaijan was adopted twelve months later by an absolute banger. The 2017 race had all of it. From gripping racing to heated controversy, involuntary comedy and sporting sensations, all the things was there on the first Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

Instantly after the beginning, Toro Rosso teammates Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz clashed, and in flip three, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen clashed. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton maintained his lead over Sebastian Vettel within the early chaos. A constellation that was to trigger a stir afterward. Bottas fell again a lap resulting from a restore cease and Daniel Ricciardo additionally misplaced contact with the sphere a bit of later resulting from an unscheduled service.

On lap twelve, the race management referred to as the security automobile for the primary time to rescue Kvyat’s stranded automobile. This gave Bottas the possibility to unlap himself. Solely 5 laps later, it was neutralized once more after Raikkonen’s Ferrari had began to disintegrate into its particular person elements. Hamilton repeatedly complained concerning the gradual tempo of the security automobile in each yellow phases.

Shortly earlier than the second restart, there was a bang between the Mercedes driver and Vettel. Hamilton set the tempo, rolling the Silver Arrow on the exit of Flip 15 whereas his pursuer apparently anticipated the competitor to choose up the tempo. Vettel drove Hamilton barely into the rear after which misplaced his composure. After driving subsequent to the Mercedes on the identical top and expressing his displeasure with wild gestures, he pulled to the proper and drove Hamilton into the automobile.

He was sure: Hamilton had subjected him to a braking check and thus provoked the rear-end collision. What subsequently brought on an excessive amount of controversy was punished by the stewards at that second with a light 10-second stop-and-go penalty. Nevertheless, it took a couple of rounds earlier than this was pronounced. When the Grand Prix resumed on lap 20, Esteban Ocon pushed his Pressure India teammate Sergio Perez into the wall on flip two.

After that it was time for the Mexican to complete work, as did Raikkonen, who suffered a flat tire from the wreckage of this collision, severely damaging the underbody and rear wing of his Ferrari. This time the security automobile wasn’t sufficient to do the clean-up work. The race was pink flagged on lap 22.

The greater than 20-minute break offered the following spotlight of Sunday. Ferrari had used the time to make Raikkonen’s automobile operational once more. Instantly earlier than the restart, hectic broke out among the many Italians. The automobile was unexpectedly pushed to the pit exit with the driving force within the cockpit on skates. Simply silly that no steering wheel was connected and Raikkonen wasn’t even carrying gloves. The logical consequence was an Iceman blaring on the pit radio, screaming for ‘steering wheel’ and ‘gloves’.

After the restart, Hamilton continued to guide in entrance of Vettel, adopted by the Williams duo Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll in addition to Daniel Ricciardo, who had slipped ahead once more because of the chaos. The Honey Badger made quick work of the Williams drivers and conceded each of them in flip one with one among his typical constant strikes.

The sector narrowed additional within the following laps. Massa retired with a defect, Nico Hulkenberg jammed his Renault into the wall. On lap 29 Hamilton was instantly in bother. The headrest had apparently not been correctly mounted in the course of the break and had come unfastened. The Brit tried to unravel the issue himself, however was labeled as a security danger by race management and needed to pit two laps later.

It was solely now that the officers pronounced the penalty in opposition to Vettel for his maneuver in opposition to Hamilton, which he served on lap 33. With 18 laps to go, Ricciardo was main forward of a sensational Lance Stroll and Bottas, who was additionally resurrected. Vettel and Hamilton adopted behind.

Ricciardo drove the race house safely to take Pink Bull’s first win of the season. In a heartbeat end, Bottas handed Stroll on the road and snatched second place from the rookie. A mere 0.105 seconds separated the Canadian from the Mercedes driver. Within the midst of the scandal surrounding Vettel and Hamilton, he nonetheless wrote the sporting story of the day with third place. Fame additionally had its downsides: Stroll needed to drink from Ricciardo’s shoe on the rostrum.

What else occurred:

17 years in the past: Fernando Alonso celebrates his sixth win of the season on the ninth race of 2006 in Canada. Ranging from pole place, the Renault driver all the time had a agency grip on the lead regardless of a number of security automobile phases. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen needed to accept second and third place. With this consequence, Alonso prolonged his lead over Schumacher within the World Championship to a powerful 25 factors on the time.

59 years in the past: Johnny Herbert was born in Romford, UK. With 165 Grands Prix between 1989 and 2000, the British crowd favourite had a powerful profession in Formulation 1, which he rounded off with three victories for Benetton and Stewart.