Ricciardo retires

It was more of the same at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Mercedes recording their fourth consecutive 1-2 to start the 2019 season, while Daniel Ricciardo managed one of the more farcical retirements in recent memory.

Can anyone stop the Mercedes domination? And has Ricciardo hit rock-bottom? Wide World of Sports takes a look at the issues after round four of the season.

Only Valtteri Bottas can stop Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes became the first team in history to claim four consecutive 1-2 finishes to start a season. Fortunately for us, it’s two wins apiece for Bottas and Hamilton, otherwise the championship could be done and dusted already.

Last season Hamilton won 11 races, while in the same car Bottas didn’t once stand on the top step of the podium. It saw the Finn label the season as the most disappointing of his career, with speculation Esteban Ocon would be taking his spot for 2020 if his results didn’t improve.

But it’s a different Bottas in 2019. A commanding victory in Melbourne, a strong performance in China where only wheelspin at the start cost him a shot at victory, and now another win from pole position in Baku.

It leaves Bottas a point ahead of Hamilton at the top of the standings, compared to the same point last season where he was already 30 points behind, and sets up a potential repeat of the 2016 season, when Nico Rosberg and Hamilton went toe-to-toe for the title.

Behind, Lap 32 witnessed a bizarre incident when Daniel Ricciardo, still hunting for braking confidence in his Renault R.S.19, locked up and went straight on at Turn 3. Daniil Kvyat had to take avoiding action and pulled up to stop, only for Ricciardo to reverse out of the slip road and straight into the Toro Rosso – the resulting damage putting both cars out, with Ricciardo recording his third DNF in four races.

Then on Lap 40, the man who replaced Ricciardo at Red Bull, Pierre Gasly, was in trouble, as his sixth-placed RB15 ground to a halt, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car, while Gasly’s compatriot Romain Grosjean retired into the Haas garage on the same lap.

When racing resumed, however, and despite nipping at his team mate’s heels, Hamilton was unable to launch a proper challenge against Bottas, who saw out the remaining 10 laps to take his second win of the year, and lead home Mercedes’ fourth straight one-two in 2019.

For Bottas, the result here would have been particularly sweet, given that the Finn was robbed of victory here last year after suffering a puncture while leading with three laps to go.

Sebastian Vettel took his second straight third-place finish, while Charles Leclerc, 30-odd seconds off the lead with three laps to go, made the call to dip into the pits and claim the extra point for fastest lap, adding that to the 10 he took for his fifth-place finish – while he also claimed the Driver of the Day award – while Verstappen was fourth for a third straight race.

Sergio Perez was once again strong at Baku to claim Racing Point’s best finish of the year in sixth, while a McLaren team desperately in need of a good result got one in Azerbaijan, Sainz finishing seventh and taking his first points of the year, with Norris just one place back.

So Mercedes have once again pulled the rabbit out of the hat, defeating Ferrari at a track where, up until Leclerc’s crash in Q2, pole and victory for the Scuderia had seemed assured. But as we prepare to return to Barcelona, the place where Ferrari proved so strong during pre-season testing, can the Italian team turn it all around, and stop the tide of the Silver Arrows?