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Lap 13/51: Verstappen is now almost 3.5sec in front. Russell has drawn closer to Antonelli, the two Mercedes drivers turning up the heat on the front three.
Lap 12/51: Antonelli begins to put serious pressure on Lawson in third. Oliver Bearman has overtaken Pierre Gasly to rise to 16th.
Lap 11/51: Verstappen has widened his lead to almost 3sec. Sainz and Lawson are hanging in there.
Lap 10/51: Tsunoda defends desperately against Russell, but in vain. The Mercedes driver gets round him with a deft move rises to fifth.
Lap 9/51: Sainz is 1.7sec behind Verstappen and holding his own in second place. There’s a big battle for fifth place shaping up, with Russell, Leclerc, Norris and Hamilton all chasing Tsunoda.
Lap 8/51: Hamilton is climbing the standings, rising to ninth after some smart overtaking.
Lap 7/51: The yellow flag goes up briefly, but green soon follows. Norris is hot on the heels of Charles Leclerc.
Lap 6/51: Verstappen is still out in front and going well. Sainz, Lawson and Antonelli remain second, third and fourth.
Lap 5/51: Norris moves up a position after getting one over on Isack Hadjar. The McLaren driver is up to eighth.
Lap 4/51: The safety car comes in and we’re back under way in Baku. Verstappen guns it, while Russell is overtaken by Tsunoda and drops back to sixth.
Lap 3/51: Esteban Ocon has had to come into the pit to swap tyres after an early collision with Nico Hülkenberg. A chaotic start to the race!
Lap 2/51: Piastri’s crash is the big talking point. He jumped the start and it all went wrong from there. High drama.
Piastri appeared to lock up while trying to regain position from the back. Could that change the fate of the title? It’s a huge opportunity for Norris.
Piastri crashes!
The championship leader doesn’t even make it through the first lap. He’s in the wall and the safety car has been called.
Lights out!
And they’re off. Verstappen makes a strong start, but Piastri has dropped back to last!
George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda, in fifth and sixth respectively, are also on hard runners. The McLarens are on the medium. Lights out is coming up.
Verstappen has gone for a hard tyre, while Sainz, Liam Lawson and Kimi Antonelli are on medium. The formation lap is under way.
Asked about race strategy, Hamilton gave some interesting insight. “I think it’s really dependant on the weather or the wind, particularly the temperature of the day,” he said. “At this temperature it’s probably closer to a one-stop I imagine, but if it gets cooler it could lead to graining, so who knows.”
Lewis Hamilton, who starts in 12th place, has been speaking to Sky Sports. “We need to be moving forwards, we are out of place and it was looking really good in practice,” he said. “The car has been feeling great all weekend and I honestly felt it was the strongest package we’ve had this year.
“I hope we can progress forwards, this is an amazing circuit for overtaking, we’ve got a great crowd and so I hope we can put on a great race.”
Conditions in Baku? Windy, unsurprisingly. There could be rain, so the teams will have to adapt their strategies accordingly.
The Azerbaijani anthem is playing, the teams are standing to attention in the pit. Not long to go now.
Preamble
Good morning! It’s time for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. What can we tell you? Max Verstappen is on pole with Carlos Sainz in second after a messy qualifying session which featured a record six red flags, while Lando Norris is back in seventh and Oscar Piastri is in ninth after crashing out. Can the McLaren drivers close the gap on Verstappen? We’re about to find out.
