McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won a dramatic Azerbaijan GP after keeping Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc at bay for over 30 laps. This has helped McLaren move to the very top of the constructors’ standings, 20 points clear of Red Bull.
The race ended under the Virtual Safety Car as Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz crashed on the penultimate lap, promoting George Russell to third place.
- Piastri scores second F1 win
- Leclerc, Russell on podium
- Williams bags double points finish
Piastri wins Azerbaijan GP as Perez, Sainz crash
Starting from pole position, Leclerc held on to the lead in the early phase of the race and even pulled away a bit as Piastri overworked his tyres. However, Piastri was back in contention after stopping for hard tyres. The McLaren driver picked up DRS on Lap 19 and passed Leclerc into Turn 1.
Leclerc then followed Piastri closely for the remaining laps but failed to find a way past. The Ferrari driver’s tyres faded in the closing stages, and he was now forced to defend from Perez and Sainz. Perez overtook Leclerc on Lap 50 of 51 but was immediately re-passed. This gave Sainz the chance to attack and claim P3 from Perez. However, the two collided on the run to Turn 3.
With the race ending under the Virtual Safety Car, Piastri finally had some breathing room as he crossed the chequered flag to take his second F1 win. “I tried at the start of the race to get in front, but once I dropped out of DRS [range to Leclerc], I just didn’t have the pace. After the stop, I saw we were pretty close again, and I felt like we had a little bit of extra grip. I had to go for it because I knew that if I didn’t get past at the start of the stint, I was never going to get past,” said the Australian.
“I went for a pretty big lunge but managed to pull it off and then hang on for dear life for the next 35 laps. The last couple of laps, once [Leclerc] dropped out of DRS, were a little bit more relaxing, but there’s no such thing as a relaxing lap around here, so it was hard work. It definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career.”
Norris gains on Verstappen
With Perez and Sainz out of the race, Russell scored an unexpected podium result for Mercedes. The crash also helped championship contender Lando Norris.
The McLaren driver had to start the race from down in P15 after a disastrous qualifying session. But he pulled off an impressive recovery drive and even passed championship leader Max Verstappen (who was once again struggling with car balance issues) later on to finish P4.
Fernando Alonso was sixth for Aston Martin, ahead of the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto. Lewis Hamilton bounced back from his pitlane start (for taking new power unit elements) to finish P9. Oliver Bearman, who replaced Haas’ Kevin Magnussen for the race, scored the final point.
2024 F1 championship standings
Norris took three points out of Verstappen’s championship lead and now trails the Red Bull driver by 59 points. However, with Perez unable to score any points, Red Bull lost the lead to McLaren in the constructors’ championship. The gap between the two is 20 points, but Ferrari isn’t too far off, just 31 points behind Red Bull.
The title battle will continue at the Singapore GP on September 20-22.
2024 Azerbaijan GP results
Dipan Sur
