The result of the Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit gave Formula 1 something that it hadn’t seen since 2013.
Through the first five races of the 2021 Formula 1 season, Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had shared the podium with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on three occasions, giving them 16 total shared podiums, an all-time record.
Verstappen finished in the top two in all five of those races, winning twice, while Hamilton won three times and finished in second place on one other occasion. Bottas had recorded three third place finishes.
But in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit, none of these three drivers finished on the podium.
In fact, none of them even managed to score any points.
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The race was a disaster for Bottas, who qualified in 10th place and simply couldn’t work his way up through the field en route to a 12th place finish.
It was going much smoother for both Verstappen and Hamilton, but at the end of 51 laps around the 20-turn, 3.73-mile (6.003-kilometer) temporary street circuit in Azadliq Square, Baku, Azerbaijan, Bottas was actually the highest finisher of the usual podium trio.
On lap 46, Verstappen was leading the race comfortably ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in second place, and Hamilton was running in third. But a tire issue sent Verstappen into the wall on the front straightaway, leading to a retirement and a red flag period.
On the ensuing standing restart with two laps remaining, Hamilton briefly took the lead from Perez, but he locked up his brakes and went sailing into the turn one runoff area. He got back onto the track, but he only finished in 15th place.
This marked the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit in October 2013 that these three drivers had all failed to score points in the same race.
Prior to today, 147 races had been contested since that event, which saw Sebastian Vettel lead a 1-2 finish for Red Bull ahead of Mark Webber.
In that race, Hamilton was forced to retire as a result of a puncture while Bottas was a rookie driving for Williams who was still searching for his first career points. He finished in 17th place.
Verstappen was competing in karts and still two seasons away from his eventual Formula 1 debut, so this type of a result had never before happened during his career, which now includes 125 consecutive starts going back to his first start in March 2015.
The next race on the 2021 Formula 1 schedule is the French Grand Prix, which is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Circuit Paul Ricard beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, June 20.