Fernando Alonso is known to be able to make masterful starts, often winning quite a few places in the first few corners of a Formula One race. This was also the case in the 2021
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he made up four places after a late restart.
Great start for Alonso in Baku
With only five laps to go, disaster struck for
Max Verstappen: he suffered a blowout and crashed out from a leading position. A red flag followed and a restart followed. At that restart,
Sergio Perez was able to take over from his teammate, while
Lewis Hamilton made a costly mistake and shot straight on.
Meanwhile, Alonso got away very well, gaining a place at the first corner, followed by three more places in the following three laps. It earned the Alpine driver sixth place. Can he repeat that trick this year?