(Skysports) – Sergio Perez won an extraordinarily dramatic Azerbaijan GP for Red Bull after team-mate Max Verstappen lost a certain victory in a high-speed accident five laps from the end, and Lewis Hamilton botched the subsequent restart to ruin his own chance of success. After Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had already suffered an accident when his left-rear tire suddenly let go at around 200mph on Baku’s long main straight, Verstappen’s afternoon suffered a similarly scary conclusion on lap 46.
Verstappen was headed for a key victory to stretch his title lead over Hamilton to 15 points when his own left-rear tire suddenly let go and the Red Bull slammed into the outside wall on the pit straight. Kicking the failed tire after exiting his crashed car, a frustrated Verstappen trudged away and seemed set to lose the points lead to Hamilton, who was now running second to Perez.
But there was one final extraordinary final twist to come. After the race was red-flagged and the cars returned to the pit lane while the track could be cleared, the event was eventually restarted late into the Baku afternoon with a second standing start from the grid for the final two laps.

Hamilton, whose Mercedes brakes were smoking as he lined back up on the grid, got a better getaway than Perez and appeared set to lead from the Red Bull into Turn One.
But, inexplicably for a driver who makes so few mistakes, Hamilton ran straight on into the escape road as the pack streamed through the corner behind him.
With so little time to recover, the world champion finished 15th – ending a record run of 54 races in the points stretching back to 2018.
“Just on the restart, I think when Checo [Perez] moved over towards me I clipped a switch and it basically switches the brakes off, and I went straight,” explained Hamilton to Sky F1, who had referred to a switch that adjusts brake bias as ‘the magic’ over the radio.
“Very hard to take but I’m mostly just really sorry to the men and women in the team who have worked so hard for these points.”
With neither title contender scoring points, Verstappen therefore retains his four-point championship advantage.
An unexpected one-two-three after late Baku drama

Perez certainly enjoyed his fair share of good fortune but the Mexican was already driving a strong race.
Gaining two places off the start to run fourth, he jumped Hamilton through the pit stops and then kept the Mercedes at bay despite the world champion often running within DRS overtaking range of him. Now a double-race winner in F1 after his long-awaited maiden triumph with Racing Point in Bahrain last December, Perez becomes the first driver other than Verstappen to win for Red Bull since Daniel Ricciardo in 2018. Sebastian Vettel has replaced Perez at his former team this year, now known as Aston Martin, and the German four-time champion starred on Sunday to take a remarkable second for his first podium since leaving Ferrari. The German, fifth two weeks ago in Monaco, had started 11th on the grid but hauled himself up the order via a long first stint before completing quick-fire overtakes on Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly after the Stroll-triggered Safety Car.

But AlphaTauri’s Gasly, a consistent front-runner all weekend, still took a deserved third for the third podium of his young career after overtaking Charles Leclerc at the restart.
Leclerc had started on pole but the Ferrari did not have the race pace to challenge and had quickly been overhauled by Hamilton and the two Red Bulls. He eventually secured fourth, just ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who had recovered well from a grid penalty and then poor start.
Fernando Alonso was 10th at the late restart but the wily Spaniard was on the move for the two-lap dash to the flag and secured sixth place for the best result of his F1 return with Alpine. Yuki Tsunoda was seventh in the second AlphaTauri for his first points since March, with Carlos Sainz eighth for Ferrari after an early error.
With Valtteri Bottas enduring a dismal afternoon and finishing 12th, Mercedes unusually ended with no points from the weekend and so slip further behind Red Bull in the standings after Perez’s win.