Hello MiniFans and welcome back in Baku, where the hype is real after last year’s chaotic race. This year isn’t any different. We could see a couple of crashes during this race weekend already, so everyone is pumped to see more. We also have three drivers starting from the pit lane. Gasly got the measure after missing a weightbridge summon, Raikkonen was disqualified from the qualification because of a too flexible front wing and lastly, we have Kubica, who did an illegal setup change.

Right from the start, we saw a close battle between Hamilton and Bottas, which was won by the Finn. Verstappen lost his fourth position to Perez, who made it to the podium two out of three races here in Azerbaijan.  The Dutchman didn’t have the best start ever on his least favorite track. However, he could speed up again and opened up the fight to gain his fourth position back.

Leclerc moved up a whopping five places after only nine laps. Then it was time for the battle with Verstappen, who was having some brake issues. This way, Leclerc could pass him a bit easier and started to hunt for Vettel. Meanwhile, we could see Verstappen’s collegue, Gasly, moving up to P9. Vettel dropped from P3 to P5 during his pitstop.

At lap 14, we had Leclerc in the lead followed by Verstappen and Bottas, when Kubica received a drive through penalty. The Polack got away too early in the pit lane at the start. A bit later, we could see Verstappen having a hot minute, when he drove over a kerb. Luckily for the Dutchman, he only damaged his floor a little bit.

Halfway the race, we could ascertain that almost all of the overtakes in Baku, are made at the first corner at the track, right after the long straight with the help of DRS. Grosjean was the first one who made a ‘big’ mistake during the race. He drove into an escape lane after breaking a little late, but the Frenchman could continue his race although he lost two positions.

We got a yellow flag in lap 32 when Kvyat and Ricciardo collided. The Aussie braked too late to overtake Kvyat and that way, they both ended up in the escape lane. Kvyat was able to continue his race for only four more laps, while Ricciardo so much damage that he had to park his car immediately in his garage. The next driver with bad luck was Gasly. He lost power in lap 39 and stopped his car in the same lap, causing a Virtual Safety Car. And DarkMini didn’t stop teasing yet! Grosjean retired as well, as we saw him climbing out of his car in the garage.

Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan GP of 2019, with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium. Verstappen finished fourth followed by Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, Norris, Stroll and Raikkonen.

We are back in two weeks for the Spanish GP. See you all then and stay MiniCool!