He beat his teammate Max Verstappen into second, with the pole-sitter, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, taking third place in Baku. Pérez has now closed the gap on Verstappen who leads the Mexican in the world championship by six points, with Alonso in third. Leclerc held his lead into turn one from Verstappen and the front six all held their positions for the opening lap, as the Red Bulls bided their time waiting for the DRS to be enabled on lap three. Verstappen was struggling for grip and the team pitted him on lap 11, just as Nyck de Vries went off and subsequently caused the safety car to be called. Racing resumed on lap 14 and Verstappen swiftly passed Leclerc to take second at turn three. Verstappen was quicker but by barely more than a few hundredths of a second, not enough to close the gap. By lap 29 Verstappen had to back off as he struggled with the balance of the car.

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