Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan GP ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel coming in third. Max Verstappen of Red Bull managed to split the two Scuderias as he came in fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc.
McLaren also enjoyed a positive day as both cars finished in the points, with Carols Sainz in seventh and Lando Norris eighth. Racing Point point pair Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll finished sixth and ninth respectively and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen continued his run of finishing in the points in every race so far in 2019 with 10th spot.
Related: Bottas Makes Winning Start To 2019
Bottas finished 1.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton as Mercedes continued their dominant start to the season, with the Silver Arrows setting a new record of four consecutive one-twos at the start of a season. Bottas failed to challenge his team-mate last season as he was unable to win a race but the Finn has two victories in four grands prix this year and now leads the way in the standings thanks to the point he gained for the fastest lap in Australia.
Ferrari again failed to mount a serious challenge as Vettel was unable to close in on the two Mercedes drivers and the German is third in the standings -35 points off the pace. Leclerc had looked like a real contender until crashing in qualifying, which meant he started from eighth on the grid, but the 21-year-old did at least manage to make a statement with a point for the fastest lap.
