2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

The race was brought forward from its June date to avoid clashing with celebrations for the centenary of the Azerbaijan republic. The race filled the berth taken by the Russian Grand Prix, which was moved to a September date. The vacancy created in June was filled by the newly revived French Grand Prix. Intermediate (green) and full wet (blue) tyres were available were rain to fall during qualifying or the race, but rain was not a factor and neither were used. ==Qualifying==

In the last minute of Q3 shootout, Kimi Räikkönen almost claimed pole position but he made a mistake on the exit of the final corner, instead settling for P6. That mistake allowed Sebastian Vettel to keep his pole position. Qualifying classification ;Notes •  – Nico Hülkenberg received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. •  – Brendon Hartley and Romain Grosjean failed to set a Q1 time within the 107% requirement and raced at the stewards' discretion. Grosjean also received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. ==Race==

Race report Start All drivers got off the line from the standing start without incident. A minor racing incident which led to contact between Kimi Räikkönen and Esteban Ocon occurred as both navigated turn 2. On the straight after turn 2, Sirotkin's car made contact with Fernando Alonso's McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg's Renault, and caused a double tyre puncture (to Alonso's front right and rear right tyres), and puncture to Sirotkin's front left tyre as well as suspension damage. In the chaos, Force India's Sergio Pérez struck the back of Räikkönen's car, causing him to make a pit stop. Several safety car laps were needed to clear retired cars and carbon fibre debris from the track. Pérez received a five-second penalty for the contact with Räikkönen, which he served at his first pit stop. The top five drivers restarted in qualifying order, at the lap 6 restart. The two factory Renaults of Sainz and Nico Hülkenberg soon passed Verstappen to take 4th and 5th. Mid-race After Hulkenberg's retirement, the race approached a more typical Formula One race rhythm. Sainz pitted from 4th with worn ultrasoft tyres, and the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen raced 4th and 5th for several laps, occasionally exchanging positions. Verstappen, who had just passed Ricciardo due to an overcut during a tyre change pitstop, made a late defensive move to cover an attempted overtake by Ricciardo which caused a collision between the pair. The collision was sufficient to retire both drivers, leave them both disabled on track, and force the race's second safety car. Several drivers in the top 10 took advantage of the situation; before the safety car bunched the drivers together, race leader Bottas made his long-awaited single pit stop for new ultrasoft tyres on which to finish the race, and second place Vettel, third place Hamilton, and fourth place Raikkonen also all pitted for new ultrasofts. Just as lap 49 began, Bottas, leading the race by more than one second over Hamilton, suffered a tyre puncture and was forced to retire. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was reported to have been very angry after the lap 40 crash that forced the retirement of both his drivers, and called the contact "unacceptable". Horner required both Verstappen and Ricciardo to apologize to all members of the Red Bull staff for the incident. Both drivers received an official reprimand from the FIA for the crash in Baku. Race classification ;Notes •  – Kevin Magnussen had ten seconds added to his race time for causing an avoidable collision. •  – Valtteri Bottas did not finish the race but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance. ==Championship standings after the race==

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Constructors' Championship standings • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ==See also==