Verstappen crashes after life-threatening blowout as Hamilton suffers 'magic button' mishap

The 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is remembered less for Sergio Pérez's victory than for two separate, unrelated disasters. Neither Verstappen nor Hamilton scored a point — one crashed from the lead after a tyre blowout at over 300km/h, the other ran straight at Turn 1 after a 'brake magic' switch mishap.

Why it matters:

Baku changed nothing on the scoreboard but everything about how fragile the title fight was. Two unrelated incidents left the contenders empty-handed and exposed the tiny margins that defined a season decided on the final corner in Abu Dhabi.

The details:

• Verstappen looked set for a routine win when his left-rear tyre exploded on lap 46. The Red Bull speared into the wall; he escaped unhurt but was baffled: 'I never felt any vibrations or anything whatsoever.'
• Lance Stroll suffered an almost identical failure earlier. Pirelli cleared the tyres of manufacturing defects, blaming a circumferential break on the inner sidewall linked to running conditions on Baku's abrasive surface.
• Both Red Bull and Aston Martin had followed Pirelli's mandated pressures. The FIA tightened tyre-check protocols and issued a technical directive ahead of the French Grand Prix.
• Hamilton's restart unravelled when contact with Pérez nudged the 'brake magic' switch back on. 'I clipped a switch... it basically switches the brakes off, so I just went straight,' he said.
• Mercedes reworked the switchgear layout before France. Wolff called it 'a finger problem'; Hamilton admitted it was 'an unforced error' that 'bit us pretty hard.'

The big picture:

Baku didn't move the standings much, but it proved how thin the line was between a routine weekend and disaster. For the title rivals, it was a warning that 2021 would be decided by moments no one could fully control.