Max no points colliding with Ricciardo in Baku: 'Lost points unnecessarily'

Published on 29 April 2018 by Mike Motilall

During a crazy race at the Azerbaijani Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was not able to add any points to his tally. A crash with team mate Daniel Ricciardo towards the end of the race brought about a double DNF for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. Lewis Hamilton took the victory home after race leader Valtteri Bottas dropped out with a sudden puncture in the closing stages. Kimi Raikkonen finished second, having started from P6. Sergio Perez kept his nose clean and rounded up the podium for Force India.

“It is very dissappointing for the team”, says Max after the race. “We’ve unnecessarily lost many points. We don’t need to talk about whose fault it was, because in the end we both race for the team. Many people work on the cars and it is not good when these things happen.”

On the question whether the team should have intervened earlier, Max says: “The slipstream on the straight was strong and as soon as Daniel passed me, I was able to get back closer again. We were also constantly close to each other. Before the crash we were racing hard but fair. We gave each other enough room as well. Only once our wheels briefly touched, but that can happen during racing. What happened afterwards, was not good at all. You shouldn’t crash with each other as team mates and we need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Max indicates how this can be taken care of: “We need to do this together with the team. I don’t think that not letting us race each other would be a solution, but we’ll discuss matters and we’ll see what will happens.” Between Ricciardo and Max there doesn’t seem to be any issues: “As a racer you fight for every inch and also willing to defend your position. Being team mates you are of course not happy when you crash, but we spoke to each other immediately after the race.”

Finally, Max looks back at the start of the race where the Dutchman was struggling to maintain the temperature of his tyres. Verstappen also sheds some light on the issue with his batteries: “I didn’t have any grip, it was a real drama. After the restart, I overtook Daniel and the battery drained completely. I didn’t have any top speed any more. After a while, I got into a rhythm with the tyres, but it was hard to pull away. At a certain point, I had a small gap but then I got held up by Lewis. This got me in trouble, so Daniel could slot back in again. The whole race we were just very close to each other.”

When it’s lights out at the Baku City Circuit, things go sour very quickly at Turn one. Kimi Raikkonen comes into contact with Esteban Ocon, propelling the Force India-driver into the tyre wall. Raikkonen is able to continue on, but needs to head back to the pits due to the damage his Ferrari has suffered. Sergey Sirotkin also didn’t come out unscathed after the first corner: the Russian is squeezed by Nico Hulkenberg and gets hit by Fernando Alonso while trying to avoid the German. The left front wheel of the Russian is immediately knocked out of commission and Sirotkin is stranded even before the first lap has been completed. Alonso suffers quite some damage due to the incident and limps back to the pits with two flat tyres. The Spaniard is able to get back on track with two new tyres and a new nose. Because of the debris on track, the safety car is deployed.

As soon as the track has been cleared, the pack is let loose again. It is remarkable how long Vettel waits to get back on the throttle. Max has kept his wits about and makes little work of his team mate entering Turn two. For a brief moment, Carlos Sainz appears to be a threat, but Verstappen repels his attack quite nicely. The Spaniard is relentless though and keeps mounting the pressure on the Dutchman. After a few laps however, the Spaniard manages to get pass. Even Hulkenberg manages to overtake both Red Bull Racing-drivers not much later.

After ten laps, Vettel is still leading the pack. Hamilton and Bottas both round up the top three at that moment, with the Renault and Red Bull Racing-drivers behind of them. One lap later, things take a turn for the worse for Hulkenberg when the German hits the wall. This means the end of his race. Alternatively, Max and Ricciardo move up one spot. Despite the fact that both drivers have reported issues with their batteries on their radios, their lap times seem to still be quite normal.

Verstappen is closing the gap to Sainz slowly but surely and on lap sixteen, the moment the Renault-driver heads into the pits, he overtakes him. The deficit to Valtteri Bottas, who’s in third, is more than twenty second.

Lewis Hamilton is on lap 22 the first of the front runners to come in for his stop. With a fresh set of the yellow striped tyres, the Britt rejoins just ahead of Max Verstappen. But Verstappen gets stuck, which causes Ricciardo to slot right back in. The Ozzie undertakes an overtake on lap 27, but Max doesn’t budge and keeps the previous Grand Prix-winner behind of him.

Race leader Sebastian Vettel comes in on lap 31 for new tyres and switches to the softs. The German rejoins in second, but will move up one spot as Bottas still needs to head in for his pit stop.

Max reports to his team that the temperature is slowly dropping from his tyres. Ricciardo keeps the gap small and overtakes Max on lap 35, putting him fourth now. The Red Bull Racing-drivers stay out for a very long time and Verstappen only pits again on lap 39 for a new set of the super-softs. Things remain quite thrilling between the two team mates, until it all goes South on lap 40. Ricciardo, during braking for Turn one, hits the rear of Verstappen, causing both drivers to crash. This is game over for both drivers.

The safety car is once again deployed. Bottas immediately heads for the pits and retains his advantage on Vettel, who in turn also pits for a new set of ultra-soft tyres. To make matters worse, Romain Grosjean crashes during the safety car period. The amount of dropouts has reached six in total by now.

When the rest of the field is let loose again, with several laps to go, Vettel loses his second place to Hamilton and Raikkonen after he got too excited when trying to overtake Bottas for the lead. The race in Baku proves to be a crazy one once more, because Valtteri Bottas gets a puncture, in the closing stages of the race, due to a piece of carbon left on track. The Mercedes-driver parks his car behind the tyre wall and this brings the tally to seven drop outs.

Lewis Hamilton eventually comes out on top and snatches the victory, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez. Vettel is fourth fastest and stays ahead of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who, achieve a great result for respectively Renault and Alfa Romeo Sauber. Brendon Hartley also scores his first points in his budding Formula 1-career with his tenth fastest finish.

Results Grand Prix Azerbaijan: