On the evening of June 6th, Beijing time, in the last four laps of the 2021 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, almost the most magical scene in F1 history was staged: on lap 47, the leading Red Bull driver Verstappen suddenly burst a tire and hit the wall, causing a direct loss of 26 points; the race restarted after the red flag on lap 49. Hamilton, who was trying to overtake, missed the braking point at the start and drove straight off the track, falling from the runner-up position to 16th place.
Verstappen's gift was returned by Hamilton within 10 minutes. The top two in the driver's standings this season both scored zero points in this game. Verstappen still leads the driver's standings with 105 points, followed by Hamilton with 101 points.
It is worth noting that after a chaotic battle, Aston Martin Racing's "four-time champion" Vettel ascended to the runner-up podium. You must know that he did not even make Q3 in qualifying and jumped up 9 positions. Be the biggest beneficiary of this game. Let me tell you another ghost story. Starting from the "70th Anniversary Station of F1" last summer, Vettel set a record of not ranking in the top ten in qualifying for 16 consecutive stations, until he finally started in 8th place in the last station in Monaco. Embarrassingly, teammate Stoll finished in the top ten 10 times during this period. In any case, the second place is still very impressive, not to mention the overtaking of the old rival Raikkonen in the game. "We didn't expect to stand on the podium this weekend, but today I had a good start and the car was very fast. The most important thing is that we protected the tires." Vettel said after the game. By the way, Alonso finished sixth at the station and Raikkonen also finished 10th. All three veterans scored points, which is gratifying!
The third runner-up in this station, the "post-95" driver Gasly of Alfaturi, used "crazy weekend" to describe the Baku race. Indeed, there were 4 red flags in practice, 5 people crashed and 4 red flags were raised in qualifying, and Q2 and Q3 failed to finish. Ferrari driver Leclerc took the pole position for the second consecutive race, but was overtaken by Hamilton on the second lap. On laps 7 and 8, Verstappen and Perez passed Leclerc one after another, creating a situation where two Red Bulls surrounded Mercedes.
On the 12th lap, Hamilton, who had previously discovered that there was a problem with the balance of the car, took the lead in stopping to change tires. However, it was during a time when vehicles in the pit area were densely packed that the safety release time was too long. This pit stop took 4.6 seconds to change the tire. One lap later, it only took Verstappen 1.9 seconds to change tires, leaving Hamilton behind by 3.5 seconds. Since then, Verstappen's leading position has not been threatened and he started cruising mode in advance. Because of this, Verstappen's left rear tire suddenly punctured on the straight on lap 47, which shocked people so much that their eyes almost fell out. The winner's 25 points and the fastest lap's 1 point were instantly reset to zero. Hamilton's third place became runner-up, gaining 3 points, while Verstappen lost 29 points both inside and outside. The instant driver standings was 105 to 119 behind the Briton.
But no one expected that the situation would change so quickly. Before 18 points were reached, Hamilton returned to the track after the red flag, and Hamilton ran straight off the track at the first corner after starting. This was an extremely rare mistake in the career of the seven-time world champion. Hamilton, who had previously chanted "calm down, calm down" on the team radio, rarely said "sorry".
Red Bull was instantly happy again. Perez celebrated the victory heartily - because he "killed" Hamilton at the start, his and the team's celebration at this time seemed very appropriate, and it would not be at all because Verstappen was eliminated. Awkward. "I'm really happy. This track has always been crazy. (After the red flag) I had a bad start, but I told myself I would never let Hamilton pass. I braked as late as possible." Hamilton obviously felt the same way. They tried to brake as late as possible in pursuit of speed, but it was too late and they had to brake hard, causing the tires to lock...
The team was saddened by such a "magic night", but as a fan, they still hope to come to a few more nights, and the scripts are Things that you dare not write about like this are happening right in front of you. Isn’t that the charm of sports competitions?
However, tonight may have been a bit too exciting. I just posted F1 hahahaha on my friends circle, and suddenly I saw Federer announcing his retirement from the French Open next door.
On the evening of the 5th local time in Paris, Federer spent 3 hours and 35 minutes fighting hard in four sets and defeated the German player Kopfer in 7 sets. He felt that his body was exhausted and retired. This result is not surprising. Although he is the owner of 20 Grand Slam men's singles trophies, Federer has not played the French Open for several years. He is nearly 40 years old. A game as tiring as clay is not suitable for him, so he still has a good time. Prepare for Wimbledon.
Source: thoughtful
