Piastri Holds Off Leclerc To Win In Baku

2024 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1hr32m58.007s
2 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +10.910s
3 George Russell (Mercedes) +31.328s
4 Lando Norris (McLaren) +36.143s
5 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1m17.098s
6 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1m25.468s
7 Alex Albon (Williams) +1m27.396s
8 Franco Colapinto (Williams) +1m29.541s
9 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +1m32.401s
10 Oliver Bearman (Haas) +1m33.127s
11 Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) +1m33.465s
12 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1m57.189s
13 Daniel Ricciardo (RB) +2m26.907s
14 Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) +2m28.841s
15 Esteban Ocon (Alpine) Lapped
16 Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) Lapped
17 Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) Retired
18 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) Retired
19 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Retired
20 Yuki Tsunoda (RB) RetiredThe 17th round of this year’s Formula 1 season took place in Azerbaijan this weekend, and, following this afternoon’s Grand Prix in Baku, it was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who lifted the victory spoils after driving sublimely and resisting intense pressure from second-placed Charles Leclerc for Ferrari.

The biggest Formula 1 news since the previous round in Italy a fortnight ago was last Tuesday’s official announcement by the Aston Martin team that Red Bull’s longtime design guru, Adrian Newey, will join the Silverstone-based outfit on 1st March next year. This news was hardly a surprise for many of us, but it is still a highly significant development, one that Sir Lewis Hamilton will no doubt rue as Newey has chosen not to follow him to Ferrari. In addition, Newey has been primarily responsible for all the Red Bull cars, with which Max Verstappen has won his three F1 Drivers’ titles to date, and the Dutch driver has already intimated that he could be very interested in teaming up with him again in the future at Aston Martin. 43-year-old Fernando Alonso is their current lead driver, but the Spaniard may well move on to Aston’s Le Mans project at some stage, and, with Honda already signed up as its F1 power unit partner in 2026, the key missing piece in Lawrence Stroll’s dream team would be Verstappen. Read about it here: Red Bull’s Adrian Newey To Join Aston Martin

The veteran Danish driver, Kevin Magnussen, faced a race ban for this weekend’s round after a penalty at Monza following an incident with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly meant he had exceeded the permitted number of points on his racing super licence in any calendar year. The 19-year-old British driver Oliver Bearman, who has already signed to race for them next year alongside the incoming Esteban Ocon, replaced him at Haas. Bearman had, of course, been impressive when standing in at short notice for Ferrari's appendicitis-hit Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, and he knew the Baku circuit well from his previous F2 exploits there.

The anti-clockwise temporary circuit around Baku's streets features a combination of tight sections and sharp corners before a 2.2-kilometer-long straight...

On Friday, the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, revealed that Piastri has agreed in certain circumstances to support his teammate Lando Norris’ bid to win this year’s drivers’ title after team orders discussions following the previous race in Italy. Stella is very keen to avoid any further intra-team fighting between its drivers, which could impact McLaren’s ambition to win both 2024 titles. It's clear that the outfit now has the fastest car in F1, and prior to Azerbaijan, it had reduced Red Bull's dwindling lead in the constructors' championship to just eight points. However, Norris arrived in Baku still 62 points behind Verstappen on the drivers’ front, with Piastri a further 44 points adrift, and this has led to McLaren’s new stance re team orders.

Elsewhere, news is still awaited about who will be Audi’s second driver alongside Nico Hülkenberg when the German automotive manufacturer joins the Formula 1 grid in 2026, having recently completed the purchase of the existing Sauber team. The outfit’s new chief technology officer and chief operating officer, Mattia Binotto, has indicated that a decision has to be taken about whether to employ another experienced driver or opt instead for a promising youngster. The former could well be the existing Sauber driver, Valtteri Bottas, but the latter might just be the 19-year-old Formula 2 title contender, Gabriel Bortoleto, from Brazil, who won the F3 title last year. There’s been a recent trend in F1 to select younger drivers such as Bearman, Williams’ Franco Colapinto, and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, and any such promotion for Bortoleto might see the young Brazilian racing for Sauber next year too.

First held in 2017, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix aimed to establish the country's presence on the world sporting stage. The anti-clockwise temporary circuit around Baku's streets features a combination of tight sections and sharp corners before a 2.2-kilometer-long straight that leads towards the start/finish line and the opening lefthand Turn 1 beyond it. It’s a track that in the past has often featured interruptions to the action due to cars colliding with each other and the barriers, loose drain covers, and tyre failures on the flat out straight, and, as a result, it was impossible to forecast just what might happen between Friday’s opening free practice session and today’s Grand Prix.

Indeed, Verstappen led the way from Hamilton, Sergio Pérez, and Norris following first practice, but only after it had been redflagged three times. With grip levels low after a light rain shower, the action was first paused to enable the safe removal of a small piece of metal debris at Turn 12, and then Leclerc had a relatively low speed off into the wall at Turn 15. Colapinto, the rookie from Williams, caused the final stoppage by losing control at Turn 4. In Friday’s second practice hour, Leclerc recovered from his earlier accident to top the timing screens, albeit just 0.006s faster than Pérez, with Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz the best of the rest.

Alex Albon, suffered a clear blunder by the Williams pit crew as they sent his car out onto the circuit with a large cooling fan still lodged in the power unit air intake, and the Thai-Anglo driver had to stop at the pit lane exit to remove it.

The final practice session took place yesterday, with Mercedes’ George Russell setting the quickest time ahead of Leclerc and the McLaren duo, but proceedings were again twice interrupted by red flags. Firstly because Esteban Ocon’s Alpine had stopped on track and then after Bearman had visited the Turn 1 barriers in his Haas. The crucial three-stage qualifying process followed, and there was a bizarre incident during the opening part when confusion about the brief appearance of arguably unnecessary yellow flags for a slowing, offline Ocon caused the unlucky Norris to lift off and abort his lap.

This led to the disappointed title challenger qualifying only 17th fastest and therefore needing to put in a strong recovery drive today. At the other end of the grid, Leclerc claimed a fourth consecutive Baku pole position, with Piastri joining him on the front row. Sainz and a rejuvenated Pérez helped themselves to row two ahead of Russell and Verstappen. Meanwhile, the teenage Bearman outpaced his vastly more experienced Haas teammate, Hülkenberg, only just missing out on making it into the top ten shootout, and Colapinto was equally impressive as the Argentinian did make it into the final part of qualifying at only his second Grand Prix.

At the same time, his Williams teammate, Alex Albon, suffered a clear blunder by the Williams pit crew as they sent his car out onto the circuit with a large cooling fan still lodged in the power unit air intake, and the Thai-Anglo driver had to stop at the pit lane exit to remove it. Also, Gasly was subsequently deleted from the qualifying results after his car contravened fuel flow regulations, and Hamilton, who had been due to start in seventh position, was destined to do so from the pitlane after Mercedes replaced every part of his power unit.

This afternoon’s formation lap began at exactly 15.00 local time under cloudless blue skies, three hours ahead of British Summer Time back in the UK, and, come the opening lap 90 metre sprint from the front of the grid to the braking point for Turn 1, it was Leclerc who led from Piastri. To their rear though, Pérez quickly got the better of Sainz, and Verstappen usurped Russell. The race soon settled into a pattern that saw these six drivers maintaining their positions, but with the frontman, Leclerc, gradually building a significant lead over Piastri.

...it’s never over until it’s over, and on the penultimate lap, we witnessed a dramatic collision between Sainz and Pérez, which instantly ended their races and resulted in the Grand Prix running to its imminent conclusion under Virtual Safety Car conditions

.The Grand Prix was expected to be a one-stop affair for most, and these started with Verstappen and Russell heading down the pitlane on lap 13 to replace their medium compound tyres with the hard alternative. By lap 19, all the leading contenders had made their stops, and the front trio were still Leclerc, Piastri, and Pérez. However, at the start of the very next tour, Piastri executed a brilliant manoeuvre up the inside of Leclerc at Turn 1 to take the lead, and a gripping three-way battle between these two drivers and Pérez ensued, with the three cars covered by just over a second.

The approach to Turn 1 after the very fast straight was clearly the best opportunity to overtake, and the leading Piastri, without the benefit of DRS assistance, had to use all of his undoubted ability time and again to keep Ferrari’s Monégasque driver at bay, while Russell eventually found a way back past Verstappen on lap 34. With six tours remaining, Sainz caught the leading trio and made it a four-way fight for the podium positions before Piastri pulled out a decisive 2.3-second lead. To their rear, Norris then passed his title rival Verstappen at Turn 1 to take sixth place, and Sainz was swept by Pérez for third, leaving the two Ferraris to follow in the wake of Piastri.

In the high-speed world of Formula 1, life rarely stands still, and the cars and drivers will be back on track in hot and humid Singapore in just five days' time ...

However, it’s never over until it’s over, and on the penultimate lap, we witnessed a dramatic collision between Sainz and Pérez, which instantly ended their races and resulted in the Grand Prix running to its imminent conclusion under Virtual Safety Car conditions. The demise of the Spaniard and the Mexican, who clearly felt the coming together was Sainz’s fault, left Russell to inherit the final step on the podium, with Norris completing an excellent recovery drive in fourth, ahead of Verstappen and Alonso. The McLaren driver also secured the extra point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

When the dust had settled, Norris had reduced his deficit to Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship by three points, but it was perhaps a pivotal moment in this thrilling season when McLaren overtook Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, opening up a 20-point lead.

In the high-speed world of Formula 1, life rarely stands still, and the cars and drivers will be back on track in hot and humid Singapore in just five days' time as the build-up to next Sunday's night race there begins. This will be another temporary street circuit, but will pose different challenges to Baku.


2024 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship

1 Max Verstappen 313
2 Lando Norris 254
3 Charles Leclerc 235

2024 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship

1 McLaren 476
2 Red Bull 456
3 Ferrari 425