All the runners got away cleanly from the grid with no first lap incidents, as Red Bull looked to assert themselves at the front of the grid, with Perez and championship leaderMax Verstappen making up a place on the opening lap.
Lando Norris, who started towards the back of the grid, managed to make his way up to P12 by the end of the first lap, remedying a horrific Saturday in Baku.
The McLaren star was knocked out of Q1 in qualifying, after a yellow flag prevented him from completing a lap that would have seen him progress to the next session.
Lewis Hamilton also received a blow to his Azerbaijan GP weekend, and had to start the race from the pit lane after making power unit changes.
The champion only managed to make his way up to P17 during the opening lap, in what will be a difficult race through the field for Hamilton.
Whilst it initially appeared that there was no collision on lap one, there was contact between Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda, causing damage to the RB star's car and was forced to retire later in the race due to the incident.