The five most shocking Azerbaijan Grand Prix moments

1. Lance Stroll finishes on the podium in 2017

By 2017, the early signs of another Williams slump were beginning to show. Following a short resurgence at the beginning of the hybrid era thanks to the power of the Mercedes engine, the team had gone from a regular podium finisher to a mid-field contender. A single podium for Valtteri Bottas at the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix was the team’s only silverware over the 30-race period leading up to the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Bottas left the team for Mercedes at the end of 2016, and his replacement was the young and inexperienced Lance Stroll. He’d endured a difficult start to his F1 career, suffering three retirements in his first three races and three further finishes outside the points as his more experienced team-mate Felipe Massa amassed 20 points from the first six rounds.

By the eighth race of the year, questions were already being asked of Stroll’s worthiness to compete in F1. The Canadian driver had at least broken his points duck at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks before, but he was due a big performance to silence some of his harsher critics.

That big performance came, not a moment too soon, in Baku. He out-qualified his team-mate for the first time and managed to keep his nose clean as chaos erupted around him. A series of incidents and penalties ensured that Stroll was able to capitalise, and put on a properly impressive drive to keep pace with leading cars and hold onto second place until the final few metres as Valtteri Bottas just beat him to the line. Nevertheless, a third-place finish for Stroll was a huge surprise, but one thoroughly deserved.

2. Vettel swipes Hamilton in 2017

One of the incidents that occurred during that 2017 race was hardly believable as it unfolded in front of our eyes. Going into the weekend, Sebastian Vettel was leading the championship from Lewis Hamilton after a strong start to the year for the then-Ferrari driver. But it was clear that the Mercedes was going to be the faster car over the course of the season – so pressures were already running high as Vettel was desperate to cling on to his advantage.

Nothing made that fact quite so evident as what happened on lap 19 of the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, just as a safety car period was coming to an end. Hamilton was leading and took control of the pace as the safety car’s lights went out to signal the impending restart, but Vettel reacted slowly and ran into the back of the Mercedes.

In the heat of the moment, Vettel accused Hamilton of break testing him and his response was surprising, to say the least. He weaved alongside the Mercedes and proceeded to hit his rival in an apparent act of revenge. It was crazy to see a driver use his car in that way. We had last seen something similar when Pastor Maldonado took a swipe, again at Hamilton, at Spa in 2011.

Vettel received a ten-second stop-go penalty for the move, but still managed to finish ahead of his rival come the chequered flag. As it was, he could well have gone on to win the race without this incident, as Hamilton suffered problems of his own later.

3. Ricciardo and Verstappen colide in 2018

The 2018 season was a tumultuous one for Red Bull, Max Verstappen had established himself as the de facto team leader, and Red Bull by all accounts had come to the same conclusion. This left a frustrated Daniel Ricciardo to fight his own corner in a situation that he might well have considered unfair, especially because he had been the better performer in the opening three rounds.

By the time the season would up in Azerbaijan, Ricciardo had taken one win in China and scored more points than Verstappen. He also out-qualified his young Dutch teammate in Baku and looked to be in top form.

The rivalry hit fever pitch through the race though, as the pair squabbled continuously over fourth place, seemingly in their own private battle between the leading group of Vettel, Hamilton and Bottas, and the rest of the field behind.

Verstappen forced his way through ahead of Ricciardo in the early going, and from then on the gloves were off. The pair touched wheels on multiple occasions as they went into turn one side by side lap after lap. It was a fantastic battle, but you could see the elbows getting pointier and pointer, it was only ever going to end one way.

It came to a head on lap 41, as the Red Bulls came steaming towards turn one once again, Ricciardo went into the back of Verstappen, and the two were wiped out of the race. The frustration was clear on the Red Bull pit wall, and Ricciardo departed the team at the end of the season to seek a new challenge.

4. Verstappen's catastrophic tyre failure in 2021

Following a couple of relatively incident-free races in Azerbaijan, the 2021 grand prix was something of a return to form for the Baku street circuit. This season marked the first for a while that Mercedes was faced with a genuine competitor for the championship, as Red Bull had finally got a handle on its hybrid powertrain and was beginning to show a turn of pace that was perhaps even a step ahead of the Silver Arrows.

And so by the time we arrived in Baku for the sixth race of the season, Verstappen was leading the championship by four points ahead of Hamilton. Charles Leclerc had taken an impressive pole position, ahead of the two title contenders, and the race was set to be a stormer.

As it was, the opening exchanges were pretty tame, with no incidents at all on the opening lap. Hamilton took the lead from Leclerc at the end of lap 2 and looked to be comfortable out in front as Verstappen followed in his tracks. A slow stop for the Mercedes however handed Verstappen the net lead on lap 13, and from there it looked as though Red Bull, who had also managed to get Perez ahead of Hamilton during the pitstops, had the race within their grasp.

Disaster struck just six laps from the end, as Verstappen suffered a catastrophic tyre failure at the fastest part of the circuit. He slammed into the wall at more than 200mph and littered the circuit with debris. It looked as though this would have a huge impact on the championship, as Hamilton at that stage was running in second place behind Perez.

5. Hamilton's braking disaster in 2021

The drama did not end there, though. Following a short stoppage to tidy up the mess of Verstappen’s accident, the race restated from a standing start with two laps to go. It was Hamilton against Perez, in a fight for the win that Hamilton knew would be a huge bonus in the championship fight.

Discerning viewers would have noticed that as the cars waited for the lights on the grid, there was a huge amount of smoke pluming from Hamilton’s brakes, far more than was normal.

No matter, Hamilton got a great start and looked set to take the lead into turn one… but no. Hamilton had mistakenly selected an incorrect brake mode at the restart and barrelled into the first corner with what could only be described as sub-optimal deceleration. He speared straight on down the escape road and went on to finish plum last and in so doing, hamstring his chance of taking a decisive lead in the championship.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.