F1: Max Verstappen wins Azerbaijan GP ahead of Sergio Pérez – live updates!

19/51 Verstappen pits, far smoother than Perez, and Leclerc goes into the lead. Perez is now setting the fastest lap on those harder tyres, and that’s probably good news for Verstappen, and bad for Leclerc.

18/51 Fernando Alonso, who is now the longest serving driver ever in F1, is in fifth, with Lando Norris, rather younger on his tail. Here we go, Hamilton finally gets past Ocon, and can now chase Gasly.

17/51 The Red Bull team spring into action for Perez, though take their time at 5/7 seconds, and Perez is slow out of the pits. That puts Leclerc in second, and Russell is closing on Perez with real speed. “Hydraulics” is the given reason for Sainz’s exit.

16/51 Carlos Sainz goes back to the pits, looking morose after his car gave up on him when in fourth.

15/51 Verstappen takes the lead, nice and easy as he speeds past Perez, who doesn’t offer up any defence, having been told not to by the team radio. With Leclerc taking up the fastest lap, and having gained six seconds, the Ferrari is the threat to Verstappen now.

14/51 Hamilton has a go at overtaking Ocon, but the Mercedes doesn’t have enough speed.

13/51 The word from the Lando Norris-McLaren radio is that this is a one-stop race though the heat may cause problems. Oh dear, Question Time’s Sebastian Vettel screams after Esteban Ocon, and then spins the car, and then loses a place to Yuki Tsunoda.

12/51 Verstappen is going quicker than Perez, flying along. George Russell, having pitted, is in fourth, whereas the Red Bulls haven’t.

11/51 Verstappen not happy that Leclerc has taken the stop, though there’s a huge gap opened, around 13 seconds. The gamble is that the Ferrari’s tyres last till the end of the race. With Sainz out, it’s all on Leclerc.

10/51 The virtual safety car is on, and Leclerc comes in, to go on the hard tyres. He drops back to third, and could have been far quicker in the pit. The team was a bit slow. He had a problem with the front jack. Hamilton also comes in, and he drops to 11th.

9/51 Not much overtaking so far, like a mini-Monaco. Verstappen’s team tells him to “be a little bit patient”. Oh dear, Sainz has gone, and smashed off at turn four, and there’s a yellow flag. That looks to be it for him. “Something has failed,” he tells the radio. He’s not having much luck. Looks like his power cut out.

8/51 Leclerc and Verstappen continues to be the key battle, while Hamilton has dropped off Gasly. The word from Ferrari to Leclerc is that Perez is struggling with traction up front.

7/51 Verstappen so far not getting close to Leclerc and goes close to one of those tight walls around this rather tight track. When they whip past the castles in a chicane, it looks like a hairpin in a small country town, the type you need to beep at when turning round the corner.

6/51 Hamilton, in sixth, is closing on Pierre Gasly. Verstappen is closing on Leclerc who is also now closing on Perez. Verstappen is being told to use the overtake button by his team, which may be part of the problem in his failure so far to get past Leclerc.

5/51 Verstappen has the DRS as he attacks Leclerc on the straight, but the man from Monaco keeps ahead. Why always those two in these races? Perez has time and space to head out in front.

4/51 Perez is blazing away at the front, while in 11th and 12tn Ricciardo and Norris battle it out, the two team members. Sainz is getting distanced from Verstappen, meanwhile, and there’s a Leclerc sandwich up at the front.

3/51 Nicholas Daniel Latifi, the only driver not to score a point this season and Lewis Hamilton’s nemesis, gets a 15-second penalty for his engineer not clearing the track properly at the start.

2/51 Verstappen is going 15kph quicker than the Ferraris on the straight, and that tells the difference in racing terms. Leclerc may have locked up and allowed Perez to get through but at least he closed the gate on Verstappen.

1/51 And away we go, the green flag waves, and Perez immediately steals the lead from Leclerc who locked up, and then Verstappen holds off Sainz, who has a few nibbles. Perez tries to speed away, what a start for the Red Bull second-stringer. Great piece of driving from last year’s winner, opening up a gap of 1.3 seconds. The Red Bulls clearly have the pace.

The parade lap gets underway, the drivers warming up/cooling their tyres. The tyre strategy will play its part in today’s heat in the Land of Fire. It is reportedly 48 degrees in the pit lane. Phew, what a scorcher.

Not long now, and the grid is cleared as the drivers get ready to attack the lights.

Nico Rosberg was banned from media duties at this year’s race due to his refusal to have a Covid vaccine.

Into the grid walk, where George Russell admits Mercedes are lacking a bit of speed and bemoans his car smashing into the ground. Perez on being second on the grid: “If i get it, I go for it.” Verstappen: “It’s a bit warmer, hopefully we have a good tyre deck.” Toto Wolff on the porpoising: “We really need to find a solution to that. It’s really compressing the spine.” He even suggests Lewis Hamilton might not complete the course but says “this is not just a Mercedes thing”.

Updated at 06.50 EDT

It’s 27 degrees in Baku, which is hot but there’s been hotter, as the Azeri national anthem blares out.

Gary Naylor has been admiring the scenery: “Sunrise over the Caspian from Baku’s Old City is quite a sight, but it looks like they’ve put quite a few obstacles in the way of one of humankind’s most ancient views.”

Last year’s Azeri GP was highly dramatic, you may recall.

The race was won by Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, a superb drive for his second F1 victory, but it was overshadowed by the drama whereby both title protagonists, Hamilton and Max Verstappen, failed to score a point. Verstappen suffered a tyre failure late in the race, costing him a likely win, and Hamilton made a highly unusual error to drop from second to 15th on the penultimate lap. Both incidents will elicit serious investigations.

Lewis Hamilton continues to struggle, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep fighting for what he believes in.

The FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem, caused controversy this week when he was quoted pointing out that in the days of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost they just got on and drove, whereas modern drivers use F1 as a platform, referencing the likes of Hamilton, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Britain’s Lando Norris speaking out about human rights, LGBQT+ support and mental health.

F1 schism with FIA deepens after controversial decisions in MonacoRead more

In Azerbaijan on Friday, Hamilton underlined he had no intention of stepping back and urged more drivers to become involved. “Formula 1 continues to be an important platform to use our voices,” he said.

“For every single one of us here to do more, to speak out more, to spark more conversations. Creating a more inclusive environment is so important, and focusing on creating better diversity within your organisation and within the sport. But it’s moving at a slow pace. I encourage all drivers to be more outspoken and speak about what they care about.”

Tony Dodgins reported on yesterday’s qualifying.

Leclerc, too, is dynamite around the challenging 3.7 miles, and is the first man to take more than one pole position at the track. A feature of the season has been Ferrari’s superiority over a single lap but Red Bull’s advantage in race trim, with stronger straight-line speed and more benign tyre usage often allowing Verstappen to overhaul Leclerc.

Yet Leclerc, who only suffered at the hands of questionable Ferrari race strategy in Monaco, remains optimistic. “The pole lap felt really good,” he said. “I’m excited for the race. Tyre management is a big thing here and when we brought out a car upgrade in Spain we made a step forward, which we didn’t get to see in Monaco. I’m excited for the race.”

F1 Drivers’ Championship 2022 standings ahead of Baku

Final Positions after Qualifying:

Charles Leclerc on pole, a familiar story, now can he convert that into a victory. He starts at the tip of the grid for the sixth time this season, having only converted two of those into victories. Sergio Perez, the winner in Monaco last time out, when Leclerc was cursing his team for their pit strategy, is in second and Max Verstappen in third, as Ferrari and Red Bull continue hog the front of the grid. The title race is close, though Ferrari cannot convert their single-lap superiority over the long form. Red Bell continue to be stronger in straight-line speed. Behind them, that George Russell is quicker than Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes is a continuing sub-plot, but the action, the juice is likely to be up at the front. Behind them, the tight and often scenic streets of Baku will probably throw up a few scenarios that the protagonists will have to negotiate.

The lights go up at 12pm UK time. Join me.