Chapter 441: Azerbaijan Grand Prix | The Race IV

LAP 10 +3.562s

{Leclerc has gone into the pits. Our gap to Hamilton is three-point-five seconds. Keep up the good work,} James updated Fatih on the situation related to the drivers at the top. No response came from Fatih as he focused on driving.

......

"Verstappen was under a second before here, but the detection zone for DRS is in this part of the track, and Lewis Hamilton has got an extra tenth on him, so Verstappen shouldn’t get the advantage of DRS down this main straight.

And it’s a flat-out blast for about 1.4 miles as Verstappen goes through; Perez goes through at 200 miles an hour for these Formula 1 cars down this highway here. Verstappen has got a bit of a slipstream behind Hamilton.

But ahead of this whole group is Fatih, already in the second straight, exiting turn one, having extended his lead up to four seconds.

The gamble has been working well for them, and there are still forty laps for the safety car to make its appearance to change this from a strategic blunder to a strategic masterclass," David Croft continued, adding to the entertainment for the viewers as the feed focused on the P2, P3, and P4 drivers who were clustered together.

.......

{Sainz has pitted,} James updated.

{My tires are dead,} Fatih said on the radio. He was in the middle sector of lap 11, seeing this period as the perfect opportunity for him to pit since he would come out at around ten seconds behind Gasly and have free air to warm up the tires without having to push too much to keep his position.

{Okay then, BOX, and pit confirm,} James called a few seconds later.

Fatih just pressed the pit confirm button instead of responding as he finally arrived on the long straight. With his foot on the full throttle, he stayed on the left side of the track until he passed the dotted line that became a solid pitlane entrance line, still keeping the full throttle as the bend in the pitlane entrance came at him rapidly.

He lifted and started braking just meters before the bend, aggressively downshifting and coming down to the pit limit speed just as he crossed the pit-limiter line, making a perfect entrance into the pitlane. He remained in the fast lane before turning left into the AlphaTauri garage, coming to a stop perfectly as the front and rear jacks lifted the car.

He immediately pulled the clutch and revved the engine while the mechanics were changing the tires and making adjustments to his front wing before the car dropped.

The light he was focusing on turned green, and he immediately released the clutch halfway until it bit as he left the pitstop area, heading into the fast lane before accelerating back to the pit limit speed all the way to the exit. He finally went back to full speed as he exited onto the turn one exit straight, coming out in clean air. A 2.3-second stop, which for AlphaTauri would be considered a perfect stop, as he started his out-lap with no one to distract him.

....

"OOOOOOOHHHHH!!! That was unnecessarily risky," the two commentators reacted in surprise when the replay showed his entry into the pitlane, which was borderline crazy considering he was already four seconds ahead and didn’t really have to push to gain the few tenths he would by taking such an aggressive entrance, as the reward for succeeding was not worth the risk of failing.

"Well, you have to gain everywhere you can if you don’t want to regret it later, but even that was aggressive because I have never seen anyone enter that pitlane like that," Martin Brundle said as the replay once again showed how on the limit the entrance was. "But now out in clean air, he should have no problem maintaining the lead so long as there is no safety car at the moment."

"There has to be a very complicated prayer taking place as they are praying for a safety car, but not until after those in front of Fatih pit." Before it could even become a question, AlphaTauri solved a portion of that problem on their own as Gasly was called into the pits to make sure the gap was bigger. Mercedes also pulled the trigger at the same time as Hamilton came in, but Verstappen and Perez stayed out.

AND IT IS A SLOW PIT STOP FOR HAMILTON! HE HAS TO WAIT FOR GASLY TO PASS BEFORE HE IS LET THROUGH, AND HE HAS A FOUR-AND-A-HALF-SECOND PIT STOP AS HE IS FINALLY ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE PIT STOP AREA INTO THE FAST LANE. THIS HAS WORKED IN FAVOR OF RED BULL, WHO CAN NOW OVERTAKE HIM IF THEY HAVE GOOD PIT STOPS, AND RED BULL IS KNOWN FOR THAT!

......

The moment Hamilton was held up and lost two more seconds than needed, Red Bull pulled the trigger as they immediately called Verstappen into the pits.

"Max Verstappen is away from the pits and is going to be ahead of Lewis Hamilton; that’s the crucial thing here. Hamilton’s slow stop has cost him track position after the pit stop to Max Verstappen. Perez is leading the race at the moment, with Fatih in P2 and Vettel in P3; two of them have yet to pit."

"Look at the middle sector Perez has just done, Crofty," Martin Brundle said, directing Croft’s attention to Perez’s middle sector. "He is absolutely blistered on this lap again, and Perez is approaching the moment where he could come into the pits. He’s staying to the left-hand side, and I think he is coming into the pits, and he really does."

"So where’s Max Verstappen?"

"Going through turn 17 at the moment. As Perez brakes, the pit lane limiter is on. Verstappen is now making his way down the main straight. They have put on a hard compound tire for Sergio Perez. OOOOOOOH, a problem with the rear tire!

We’ll get Ted Kravitz’s thoughts on that in a moment, as Perez has a 4.3-second stop, and all his good work is gone as you see Max Verstappen going into Turn 1 ahead of Perez on the straight at the exit of Turn 1.

But where is Hamilton at the moment? He is coming through turn one, but he is not fast enough as Sergio Perez comes out in second place, still ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

The order has been reshuffled once again. It is Y?ld?r?m, Vettel, then Verstappen, followed by Perez, and finally Hamilton down in P5. Vettel has yet to pit in lap fourteen while Fatih extends his lead to six and a half seconds. That low fuel advantage is still showing itself here, but without a safety car, it will be a nightmare situation for them, but at the moment..."

...

With each passing lap, a few people on the pitwall experienced completely different feelings that were intensifying lap by lap. Horner felt dread but, at the same time, was hopeful that the safety car had yet to come out, counterbalancing the dread he felt with Fatih in the lead. The AlphaTauri garage was feeling excited, but with the safety car yet to come out, things were not yet guaranteed.

Fatih kept increasing his lead, lap after lap, setting purple sector times again and again, refreshing his fastest lap every few laps. Things looked good until, starting on lap 28, Fatih started complaining.

{The left rear doesn’t feel good,} Fatih reported on the radio as he went through the start-finish line while setting the fastest lap for the twelfth time.

{Nothing is visible on our end. Keep pushing,} James responded a few seconds later.

But that didn’t seem to calm Fatih down, as on the next lap he once again reported to the team, {NO, NO, there is definitely something wrong with the left rear. I feel like it might fail at any moment,} making it clear that he was not playing, while at the same time setting another fastest lap.

The people on the pit wall kept wondering why he was complaining while setting the fastest laps again and again, and if he was messing with them. But Fatih was not one to mess with them, especially in this situation. At the same time, they kept looking at the tire data on their end and found no problem at all.

{Are you going to do something about this?} Fatih asked as he was in the middle sector of lap 30.

{There is nothing indicative on our end, but if it is a problem, we can consider boxing after a few laps of observation,} James answered, making it clear that they saw no problem on their end and would like to keep monitoring it.

{I don’t care; I’m coming in at the end of this lap, so you better prepare yourselves. I will not be driving on this defective tire,} Fatih said just as he exited turn 16 and started heading down the long straight, hitting pit confirm and making it clear that the team had no choice but to go ahead with his demand.

He couldn’t really tell them that Stroll, who had been on hard tires since the race start, was going to crash around twenty seconds after lap 31 started and the pitlane was going to be closed, or they would think he was crazy. All he could do was force their hands.

And to the surprise of everyone, Fatih actually remained on the left side of the track, once again diving into the pitlane like his life depended on it. He put on the pit limiter and started the speed-limited journey to his pit stop while everyone else was at their maximum pace, meaning he was going to lose the full 20+ seconds of pit stop time, along with dropping down to P4 and giving way to Verstappen, Perez, and Hamilton to overtake him.