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Before entering the third street course of the season, Jeddah and Monaco being the other two, the standard statutory warning issued to everyone contesting (and watching) the Baku race was about not taking the Grand Prix any lightly.
After all, this is a race venue where just about anything can and has, as a matter of fact, happened. We've seen in the past how two titans of the grid, picture Lewis and Max, bowed out from the 2021 contest; the latter retiring due to a sudden Pirelli tire failure whilst leading last year's Baku Grand Prix and the former suffering massively due to an overheating brake problem.
We'd also seen a different driver winning every single Azerbaijan Grand Prix, since the event's inception back in 2017.
This is why it wasn't much of a surprise, but rather a routine occurrence to see yet another dramatic, utterly unpredictable Baku race in 2022, where the ones expected to mount a severe challenge to the rest, quite simply, backed out.
And at the same time, those expected to play pursuers for the better part of the contest, emerged, much to many's surprise, as the eventual stars.
But having said that, what key moments became the talking points from the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Disaster weekend for Ferrari
Disaster had already struck the sport's elite racing marquee by as early as lap nine, where Sainz, in fourth place, slowed down his car #55 and receded to a slow halt. A brake-by-wire problem, it was suspected, hampered the already out-of-sorts driver's race.
He was, prior to the woe occurred, keenly battling it out with the Red Bulls realising that the only way forwards in the race was to push hard and upwards from his P4.
But the biggest blow to the Maranello-based outfit came thirteen laps later, when Charles Leclerc, pursuing the twin Red Bulls out in one and two, retired with the unbearable sight of smoke blowing out of his car#16 becoming too difficult to keep up with.
And with that, both Ferraris, who had begun one and fourth, simply registered a DNF.
Though that wasn't all; Zhou Guanyu, who had been holding up pretty well until then in his Alfa Romeo, was also race-retired. And that meant, yet another Ferrari-engine power faltering in a key race; this time for a Ferrari customer team.
A few laps later, Kevin Magnussen, who'd been contesting a decent race pace-wise in his Ferrari-powered Haas, also retired owing to a suspected power unit issue, which in the end, cut a somber picture of four Ferrari-powered cars DNF'ing from the race.
Quite possibly, a dark day for the passionate red liveried cars, one wondered!
A blow to the gut for Charles whilst a massive up for Max in the championship!
In the end, a loss for Charles Leclerc meant a winsome feeling for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who entered the eighth event of this season with a nine-point advantage over the Monegasque. As he exits Baku, Verstappen's already claimed 150 points and maintains his ascendency on the point’s table.
Though before eventually bailing out on lap 22 confronting an unforeseeable engine issue, though not the first this season, Leclerc was leading the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Max pitted for the harder Pirelli compounds on lap 19 and starting the beginning of Lap twentieth, Leclerc, who had been in third back then, jumped to take the lead of the race.
He had been holding on well to the race lead even as his harder compounds were nine laps older than the Bulls'.
But it ought to be said, had the DNF not happened, there would've been a serious case of Leclerc mounting a tight defence of his track position. Instead, three laps later, i.e., lap 22, the Monegasque dived into the pits with smoke coming from the back of his F1-75.
Though the Azerbaijan Grand Prix win was also a result of Max's commitment to stay out in the front and control the order of events. A faster and more reliable car were just the allies that the current defending champion needed to register another comprehensive and clear race win. Moreover, with Checo Perez claiming a fine second in the end, Red Bull, given their one and two, enjoyed quite a party as Ferrari emerged a disconsolate figure.
Vettel- racier, punchier and utterly bold
Sebastian Vettel might not consider Baku to be his most favourite or beloved race track such as Spa-Francorchamps or the Hockenheimring. But it is here at the heart of the Caspian sea, where the German claimed a memorable podium finish a year back in the past, which meant a P2 for Aston Martin, a first for Seb in his then-new outfit.
But in 2022, as the German started his Baku race from ninth on the grid, just ahead of the iconic Fernando Alonso, there were doubts whether he'd be able to amass something truly worth remembering.
That is when the Vettel of the old; keen, aggressive and racy, emerged from the start of the race.
Right before the race approached the halfway stage, he was involved in a memorable battle with Alpine's other driver- Esteban Ocon- for eighth. It would be a position he'd eventually take by sheer grit, only to concede the position back to the young French driver as he spun out at a tight corner.
But this didn't mean that Vettel was going to relent; a few laps later, Vettel, who still had fresher tires in comparison to Ocon, who hadn't yet pitted in the race, managed to mount another challenge for P8 and was able to get through.
What one had suspected about the Aston Martin didn't really transpire, which was doubting the British team's corner speed and the ability to hold onto the main straights ably.
Vettel eventually finished with a P6 and hence, collected eight vital points for his Aston Martin side. Surely, it could be said, the team from the 007 territory have bonded with (one of) the best!
Pierre Gasly contests a mega race
For someone who stood on the third step of the podium here in 2021, Gasly had made no uncertain claims about his desire to race hard once again at Baku's imposing street course.
And that's pretty much how it panned out for the famous French driver. While Gasly began his 51-lap challenge sandwiched between the two Mercedes cars on sixth; Russell right ahead of him and Hamilton down in his mirrors, it took some impressive driving from the Rouen-born French driver to collect a P5 in the end.
In the end, the Baku result was a magnificent one for the young challenger, who, it ought to be remembered, entered round eight of the current championship at the back of some woeful results given his eleventh at Monaco, thirteenth at Spain and as seen previously, the DNF at Miami.
But will Gasly go on to score even more in the events to follow and continue to extract the most out of his Alpha Tauri that proved yet again, that it had the upperhand over the likes of Aston Martin and Alpine in the battle for ascendency in the midfield?