But, after plenty of action throughout practice and qualifying, Sunday's race was largely incident free and the first in Baku that did not feature the appearance of a safety car
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas celebrates on the podium with the trophy after winning the Azerbaijan GP in Baku yesterday. Pic/AFP
Valtteri Bottas took victory in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton who handed Mercedes their fourth straight one-two finish. The Finn crossed the line 1.524 seconds ahead of Hamilton to retake the overall championship lead from the Briton with the pair now separated by just one point with 17 races still to go. Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari was a distant third as the Italian pre-season favourites once again failed to convert their early promise into a result.
The win around the streets of capital Baku was the fifth of Bottas' career and comes after a blown tyre three laps from the finish denied him last year. Like Hamilton, he now has two wins and two second places from the first four races of the season and is only ahead in the standings thanks to the extra point he scored for setting the fastest lap on his way to victory in last month's Australian season opener.
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Mercedes, meanwhile, have finished every race so far first and second, the first two-car team in the sport's history to achieve the feat. "It was actually a tough race," said Bottas.
"Lewis was putting pressure all the time, I could not do any mistakes. It is incredible as a team, the level we are performing on right now... Of course it feels good!" added the 29-year-old who came under threat from Hamilton in the dying laps of the race.
Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull ahead of Charles Leclerc.
The Monegasque, the pole-position favourite who started eighth after crashing in qualifying on Saturday, led the race at one point as Ferrari pitted him later than his rivals.
But he had to settle for fifth even though he did claim the point for fastest lap after making a second stop for fresh tyres.
Sergio Perez was sixth in his Racing point ahead of Carlos Saint and Lando Norris, the McLaren team-mates who gave the Woking-based squad a double points finish.
Lance Stroll also made it two Racing Point cars in the top 10 in ninth, while Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen who started from the pitlane after being disqualified for a technical infringement, took the final point in 10th.
The unforgiving streets of Baku have tended to throw up some of the most unpredictable racing of any event on the calendar.
But, after plenty of action throughout practice and qualifying, Sunday's race was largely incident free and the first in Baku that did not feature the appearance of a safety car.
The most notable incident involved Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, with the Australian running straight onto the runoff while trying overtake the Russian and later reversing his Renault into the Toro Rosso which had also failed to make the corner.
The incident was investigated by stewards but both Ricciardo and Kvyat retired shortly after.
Pierre Gasly ground to a halt in his Red Bull in the late stages of the race bringing prompting the deployment of the virtual safety car.
Robert Kubica, meanwhile — already starting from the pitlane after a qualifying crash — was hit with a drive through penalty for driving to the pit exit too early, adding to the Williams team's pain on an already miserable weekend for the fallen champions.
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