It all started well for Ferrari on Saturday with a pole position and third place in qualifying, but Sunday was not quite as successful.
While a hard-fought second place was welcome for Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz's incident with Sergio Perez took him out of the race on the penultimate lap. If there was no crash, they could've been near-level on points with Red Bull after the race.
The top four teams are now closer than ever, but Ferrari seem an inconsistent second to Mclaren's might.
Leclerc: "Sometimes you do mistakes, I'll learn from it"
Leclerc was in front until a late lunge from Oscar Piastri on lap 20 put him second. He threw the kitchen sink at Piastri for the next thirty laps, but the Australian kept him at bay.
It was, however, better than he had hoped for as issues in practice halted him from getting best prepared for the challenging Baku streets.
The Monegasque's tires were giving up by the end of the fight, meaning that Piastri was about three seconds ahead when the VSC was deployed.
“I think as soon as we put the hard tyres on. The mediums were very competitive and the car felt good," the Ferrari driver said.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t do any high fuel running on my side in FP1/FP2 and we went for a set-up direction that maybe in the race was a bit more difficult to manage. Especially on the hard tyres, I was really struggling to just keep those rear tyres.
“Towards the end I really thought that… in one corner or two I thought that I would put it in the wall. It was very close, but [we ended up] second today.”
Some close shaves in turn 16 meant he had to back off and commit to a second place.
“I think maybe McLaren had a little bit less downforce, so in the straights they were very quick and in the corners we were a bit quicker."
Some noticed on the rear-facing onboard cameras that Mclaren's rear wing seemed to have been flexing by the end of the race, however there has been no official word on the legality.
It has passed the FIA's previous internal tests, though, so we presume it is legal.
“I thought that when Oscar overtook me it was just a matter of staying calm, trying to keep those tyres and overtake him later on, but actually it was a lot more difficult than that.
“To be honest, we lost the race when I didn’t quite defend as well as I should have at the end of the straight, but it’s the way it is. Sometimes you do mistakes, and I’ll learn from it.”
Sainz: "It's racing, everything happens fast"
Carlos Sainz took his chances on Sergio Perez and as soon as Perez made a single mistake, he was right there to capitalise from it. It was a matter of convergence though as they collided on the second to last lap.
Carlos and Checo were both aiming for Charles Leclerc's gearbox to get the maximum amount of slipstream, but they touched and that sent them both into the wall.
While they both blamed the other on track, off track they spoke and it was a much more mutual feeling of being a racing incident.
"I was attacking Charles into Turn 2 and then I exited Turn 2," he explains. "Checo [Perez] was on my left. We normally do a slight drift towards the left into the long straight, which I did like every other lap, and suddenly for some reason I don’t understand, Checo and I collided, which is unfortunate and also very disappointing.
“We’ve spoken already, [but] we need to analyse. I’m not someone who wants to put blame on either an excuse or put blame on another driver. It’s racing, everything happens super-fast."
The Spaniard leaves Ferrari at the end of the season and sits fifth in the drivers' standings behind Baku winner Oscar Piastri.
“My feeling today is honestly I did nothing wrong, I didn’t do any erratic manoeuvre, put him against the wall or anything like that.
"We were just, like every other lap, drifting a bit, a tiny, tiny little bit towards the left because that’s where the racing line is and we just touched. It is what it is.”
The Ferrari drivers now look towards the Singapore Grand Prix later this week, on the 20-22nd September.
