![]() The FIA red-flagged the race shortly afterwards, allowing all the teams to change their tyres before the restart that proved so costly for Hamilton. The Red Bull sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, told the FIA the team had no warning in their data of any impending failure. Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner believed it had been a tyre problem rather than a puncture. The incidents have called into question the structural integrity of the Pirelli tyres but Pirelli’s head of F1, Mario Isola, said preliminary investigations suggested debris had been to blame. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also suffered a left-rear failure at 180mph on the main straight and had an even bigger impact with the wall. He had a major impact but was unharmed and furious enough at his bad luck to deliver an angry kick to the guilty tyre. He went out when his left-rear failed causing a high-speed crash into the wall on the straight. The Dutchman had led from Pérez and Hamilton for most of the race before his misfortune. Verstappen, then, had a lucky escape in maintaining his four-point championship lead but more importantly in now walking away from a high-speed crash. Wolff admitted this race and the previous round at Monaco were the toughest of his time as team principal. He had been off the pace almost all weekend and to have claimed a hatful of points with Verstappen out would have been beyond expectations. Max Verstappen kicks his tyre after crashing out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “It’s quite difficult also because I lost a friend this morning, so it’s a mixture of emotions,” he said. It’s quite a humbling experience to come away with nothing after all the hard work.” It transpired the day had presented a very personal struggle for Hamilton as well. ![]() Naturally I am sorry to all the team but we will regroup and try and come back stronger. “Today was really a stroke of bad luck but Max had bad luck too. “It’s a very painful experience,” said Hamilton. It was an almost imperceptible moment in the cockpit but enough to cause the lock-up that cost him so dearly. It is then switched off for the start but Hamilton confirmed he had nudged it on again by accident. The “magic” button switches brake balance in the car forward to warm the front tyres during formation laps. “Did I have the magic on?” Hamilton asked of the race engineer, Pete Bonnington, afterwards. Later he said he believed it was a perfect start let down by a tiny imperfection. “You have to remember this is a marathon not a sprint,” Wolff said to his team before the restart. It seemed inexplicable given Hamilton knew how important it was to consolidate the points. At the restart Hamilton flew from the grid and looked to have the lead, only for his brakes to lock and his car to career straight on into the run-off area. ![]() Verstappen’s late tyre failure caused the race to be red-flagged on lap 49, leaving a two-lap sprint to the flag, with Hamilton lining up in second beside Pérez. For him as a driver it’s so close, then it’s all gone.” The decisive moment came as drama enveloped what for much of the afternoon had been a pedestrian affair. ![]() ![]() “The emotion and frustration is so overwhelming at the moment,” said Wolff. Mercedes knew Baku and Monaco would be perhaps their least competitive races of the season and to have been close to gaining at least 18 points over Verstappen only to see it disappear was clearly difficult to deal with. The import of Hamilton’s vicissitude was writ large on the face of Mercedes’ team principal, Toto Wolff, who looked drained and distraught afterwards. ![]()
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