“Tyred” Out Hamilton Struggles To Victory In Azerbaijan Amidst Red Bull’s Drama

Sebastian Vettel missed out on a victorious finish in Baku by whiskers as Lewis Hamilton rode his luck to finish victorious at the Azerbaijan Open.

Ferrari’s Vettel, smarting from an impressive finish last time out led for large periods of the race before bursting his tyres, hence being overtaken by Mercedes’ Valteri Bottas. Bottas took hold of the first position and looked destined for victory until his tyres developed a problem too which caused him to have a stop. Ferrari’s vehicles moved faster than Mercedes’ as Hamilton struggled to keep up pace with Bottas and Vettel.

After Bottas’ delay, Hamilton moved into pole position and led the race as he finished first at Azerbaijan ahead of their Spanish Grand Prix which is to start in a fortnight.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were dramatic in the race as they continuously contended for space. The faster Ricciardo hit Dutchman, Verstappen from behind before the 20-year old driver retaliated and bashed him at the side causing the pair to breakdown.

There was Christiana Aguilera looking on in the engine room as controllers struggled to keep both drivers focused.

Hamilton said about his performance in the race; “I struggled throughout the weekend and I’m definitely struggling to extract the car’s potential,” he acknowledged. “We’ve definitely got a lot of work still to do, we still are behind. Their pure pace is a lot ahead of ours at the moment.”

Compounding Mercedes’ unease will be that admission from Hamilton he is driving below par. “There were a lot of faults in the race, which is rare for me,” he added. “I struggled with the car, struggled with the tyres. I’ve definitely got to go away from here and work even harder to make sure that there’s not a repeat performance-wise of today.”