Sergio Perez drove a consummate race with help from the safety car to beat Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen and win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Perez and Verstappen fought a long, flat out battle after the Mexican leapfrogged ahead by being able to save time by making his pit stop under the safety car.
Perez had Verstappen’s measure, holding him at just over a second behind for a long time before beginning to edge further ahead in the closing stages, and his second win of the year reduced the Dutchman’s championship lead to six points.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – who started the race from pole, was soon dispatched by both Red Bulls after the start, and by Verstappen for a second time after the safety-car period – won a tight battle with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for the final podium position.
It was a much-needed fillip for Leclerc and Ferrari after a disappointing and difficult start to the season.
The Monegasque’s team-mate Carlos Sainz took fifth, succeeding in holding off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, which dropped out of the top 10 after the safety car.
Safety car helps the spectacle again
The race result may have turned on the timing of the safety car period and how it intersected with the pit strategies of the leading teams.
Verstappen had passed Leclerc for the lead at the start of lap three, as soon as the DRS overtaking aid was made available.
Perez followed him past a couple of laps later and began to close in on Verstappen, reducing the lead from a second, to 0.8secs, to 0.6secs on consecutive laps as the world champion began to struggle with tyre wear.
Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres on lap 10, just before Alpha Tauri driver Nyck de Vries clouted the inside wall at Turn Five, breaking his front suspension and bringing his car to a halt in the run-off area at Turn Six.
The safety car was deployed and that enabled the rest of the front-runners to pit – a stop under caution takes about half the 21 seconds of one under racing conditions – and Perez emerged in the lead, with Leclerc also jumping back ahead of Verstappen.
The Dutchman passed Leclerc within three corners of the restart but Perez was able to hold him at just over a second behind, preventing Verstappen benefiting from the lap-time advantage of the DRS.
It was a tense fight as they circulated like that until just after half distance, when Perez began to creep further ahead, extending his lead to three seconds or so, and again holding it there.
Verstappen tried to come back at him, but Perez had the pace he needed and the win – arguably the best of his career – was secured.
The safety car helped Perez on his way, but even before that he had appeared as if he might have an edge on Verstappen, putting big pressure on his team-mate, forcing him to pit early for fresh tyres, and thereby creating the chance to benefit from the opportunity that then fell into his lap.
Once in the lead, he managed the race beautifully to keep Verstappen at bay and finally break his challenge.
Behind the Red Bulls
Leclerc was left behind by the Red Bulls as he played a similar cat-and-mouse game with Alonso.
The veteran Spaniard tired his usual tactic of holding back, saving his tyres, in the hope the Ferrari’s usually high tyre degradation would play into his hands.
But Leclerc has been in consummate form around one of his favourite circuits, and he was wise to the game.
And when Alonso tried to push and close in during the closing stages, Leclerc did the same, underlining he was managing his pace by setting the fastest lap of the race, although his mark was later beaten by Verstappen, Alonso and then, with the help of a fresh set of tyres, Mercedes’ George Russell.
Behind them, Hamilton had, like Verstappen, lost out because of the safety car. He dropped out of the top 10 because he stopped a lap before Verstappen.
But Hamilton was able to pass his team-mate Russell with an audacious dive down the inside at Turn One, then the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll before closing in on Sainz.
However, the Mercedes’ lack of pace on the straight, even with DRS open, meant he could not pass the Ferrari and he found himself stuck in sixth place.
Stroll, Russell, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took the final points positions.
There was a scary incident at the end of the race when Esteban Ocon made a pit stop for tyres on the final lap only to find personnel milling about in the pit lane as he accelerated towards his garage.
An error by officials had allowed personnel from governing body the FIA and some photographers into the pit lane too early, when it was still closed.
Stewards investigated the incident and charged officials with finding ways to ensure it could not happen again.