Formula 1: Valtteri Bottas wins 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas earned his second victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season by winning the season’s fourth race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas got redemption for what happened with under three laps remaining in last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix when he was leading and ran over a piece of debris, causing his right rear tire to go flat and costing him the victory. He won this year’s running of the race at Baku City Circuit, which was the fourth race on the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 schedule.

Bottas won the 51-lap race 20-turn, 3.73-mile (6.003-kilometer) Baku City Circuit temporary street circuit in Azadliq Square, Baku, Azerbaijan after starting from the pole position, and he won it by 1.524 seconds over teammate Lewis Hamilton.

This victory is Bottas’s second victory of the season and the fifth victory of his Formula 1 career. It is also the first victory of the season that was earned by a race polesitter.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished in third place ahead of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in fourth. The top four drivers all finished the race in the same positions where they started it.

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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went on an alternate tire strategy early on that ultimately did not pay off, as he ended up finishing in fifth. He did, however, record the race’s fastest lap.

Leclerc crashed in the second of three rounds of qualifying on medium tires, and he started the race on medium tires as a result of it. He took the lead when the leaders came into the pits while he made his first stint a lengthy one on those medium tires, but he did not get the safety car he needed that would have allowed him to fight for the victory on soft tires at the end of the race with the rest of the leaders on medium tires.

SportPesa Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, McLaren teammates Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris, a rookie, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10 by finishing in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place, respectively.

The race featured a total of three lead changes among three drivers. Aside of Bottas, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 31 laps led, two drivers led at least one lap of the race. Hamilton led one lap while Leclerc led 19 laps.

Of the 20 drivers who started the race, 16 finished it and nine finished it on the lead lap. Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly, Rich Energy Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo were all forced to retire from the race.

Gasly and Grosjean were both forced to retire due to mechanical issues while Kvyat and Ricciardo were both forced to retire due to damage that their cars sustained when Ricciardo backed into Kvyat after they both went into the turn three runoff area.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit.

Race Results
1st – Valtteri Bottas
2nd – Lewis Hamilton
3rd – Sebastian Vettel
4th – Max Verstappen
5th – Charles Leclerc
6th – Sergio Perez
7th – Carlos Sainz Jr.
8th – Lando Norris
9th – Lance Stroll
10th – Kimi Raikkonen
11th – Alexander Albon
12th – Antonio Giovinazzi
13th – Kevin Magnussen
14th – Nico Hulkenberg
15th – George Russell
16th – Robert Kubica
17th – Pierre Gasly
18th – Romain Grosjean
19th – Daniil Kvyat
20th – Daniel Ricciardo

The next race on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule is the season’s fifth race, the Spanish Grand Prix. This race is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 from Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 12.