From ferocious Vettel to 'Ericsson hit us': the highlights of four races in Baku!
General
- GPblog.com
Since 2016, a trip to Azerbaijan has been a regular fixture on the calendar in every year except 2020. The Baku City Circuit has already provided special moments in its four Grands Prix, and GPblog looks back at the highlights.
2017 - A furious Vettel
The whole of the 2017 race can be considered a highlight, but one of the things that really stood out was Sebastian Vettel driving into Lewis Hamilton on purpose, white hot with anger. Hamilton went full ankle at the end of the safety car and Vettel couldn't avoid that. To show Hamilton that Vettel was not happy with this action, he came driving next to him and gave a corrective tap on his rival's wheels.
2017 - Stroll on the podium out of nowhere
2017 was a crazy race where both title rivals Vettel and Hamilton fell back in the race. This allowed Daniel Ricciardo to win the race and Lance Stroll was suddenly driving in second place. He held on to this second place until the final few meters, when Bottas came alongside and passed him. But with a third place and his first F1 podium, the Canadian was no less happy.
2018 - The crash of Verstappen and Ricciardo
For many Red Bull fans, the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will not be considered a highlight. But Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo did treat the audience to a great fight that unfortunately ended in tears. After fighting for laps, things went wrong. Ricciardo collided with the back of Verstappen resulting in a scoreless day for Red Bull Racing.
2018 - 'Ericsson hit us'
Romain Grosjean's final years in Formula 1 were filled with clumsy actions and often poor results. During the 2018 Baku GP, the Frenchman managed to put his Haas F1 into the wall during a safety car. His race engineer thought he knew the reason for the crash: 'I think Ericsson hit us', it sounded over the on-board radio. But that was not the case, Grosjean did it all by himself.