Sergio Perez wins action-packed sprint race at Azerbaijan GP

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to start Sunday's main race in pole position

Red Bull's Sergio Perez after winning the sprint race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday, April 29, 2023. AFP

Sergio Perez won Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint race in Baku to maintain Red Bull's perfect start to the season, but teammate Max Verstappen was in no mood to celebrate.

Red Bull's double world champion was seething over a first lap incident when he was muscled out of third place by the Mercedes of George Russell.

Perez won from pole-sitter Charles Leclerc of Ferrari with Verstappen, whose car picked up some damage, eventually getting his third place back off Russell.

The British driver apologised to Verstappen, saying his car had no grip but the Dutch driver snapped back: "Mate, we all have no grip, we all need to leave space!"

Verstappen added later: "I just don't understand why you need to take so much risk in lap 1, understeer in my side pod and create a hole, we all have cold tyres, it's always easy to lock up.

"But in this beautiful way of explaining mate, locked up, or look at the onboard, it doesn't make sense. We still got into P3, got some good points, but it is what it is."

Russell stood his corner, remarking: "I was surprised why he was so angry to be honest, he still finished the race in P3.

"I was still quite surprised he was trying to hold it round the outside, you know we're on a street circuit, he's got a lot more to lose than I have. None of the contact was intentional."

That mini storm on the banks of the Caspian Sea took some of the gloss off Perez's win.

The Mexican was adding this first of six sprint races in 2023 to his win in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with Verstappen taking the season-opener in Bahrain and last time out in Melbourne.

Leclerc is on pole again on Sunday for the fourth round of the season but judged on this display he will have his work cut out again to clip the Red Bulls' wings.

In the drivers' championship Verstappen leads on 75 points from Perez on 62 with Leclerc picking up seven points - more than he's earned in the three races run so far.