McLaren’s Oscar Piastri achieved a fantastic second career victory in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after first passing and then holding off polesitter Charles Leclerc lap after lap.
George Russell took a surprising third for Mercedes following a dramatic late crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.
Leclerc had taken his fourth consecutive Baku pole on Saturday and looked good to finally convert it into a first win on the high-speed street circuit.
The Ferrari driver kept the lead at the start from Piastri, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez passing Carlos Sainz for third.
World champion Max Verstappen followed his Red Bull teammate by diving up the inside of Russell for fifth into Turn 2.
With a one-stop on mediums and hards expected, Leclerc built up a comfortable six-second gap on Piastri and Perez, while Verstappen complained of his car’s behaviour and struggled to keep up with Sainz in fifth place.
Perez was the first of the frontrunners to pit for hard tyres on lap 14, but his stop didn’t trigger an immediate reaction from Leclerc and Piastri to avoid an undercut.
Waiting an extra lap, Piastri was about to lose second place, but Perez came back out behind Piastri’s teammate Norris, who had started in P15 and helped by holding Checo up so Piastri could retain his position.
Piastri’s in and out-laps also cut his deficit to Leclerc to just over a second, and on lap 20 the McLaren driver made a late lunge to the inside of Turn 1 to take the lead of the race.
Leclerc first told his team he thought Piastri’s pace was “crazy”, given there were another 30 laps left to run on the hard tyres.
But rather than letting Piastri disappear up the road, Leclerc stayed with him and tried to return the favour on several occasions into Turn 1, with Piastri standing firm each time.
That battle allowed Perez to sit back behind the pair in third, taking less life out of his hard tyres, while Sainz was also closing in following a lonely race in fourth.
As Perez failed an overtake on Leclerc on the penultimate lap, Sainz looked poised to benefit and slip past for third, but coming out of Turn 2 the pair tangled and made a hard crash into the wall.
Piastri headed Leclerc and Russell home under the virtual safety car, while Norris rounded off his comeback race in fourth.
Norris started on the hard tyres and was initially able to hold off Verstappen, who continued to struggle with rear-end bouncing. After finally making his lap 38 pitstop, Norris reduced the 15-second gap to repass Verstappen for fourth.
This was important moment in terms of the championship with Norris overtaking Verstappen gaining extra points.
In the background Fernando Alonso rounded off a lonely race to sixth, holding off hard-tyre starter Alex Albon who had run as high as third in the first stint.
Rookie Franco Colapinto put in a solid performance to follow Albon in eighth, taking points on his second Grand Prix outing for Williams.
Lewis Hamilton made a good comeback from a pitlane start to finish ninth, after choosing to make engine and suspension changes overnight.
Impressive Oliver Bearman also took a maiden point for Haas, edging out his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg for tenth. So Bearman has scored points as both a Ferrari and Haas driver. Solid performer.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was the only other retirement after a lap one clash with Aston’s Lance Stroll, with left Tsunoda with terminal floor damage and Stroll with a puncture.
By taking the fastest lap, Lando’s comeback drive saw him reduce the points to Verstappen, narrowing the gap to 59 points.
So a thrilling race at Baku. Well done to Oscar Piastri in scoring his second career victory. Kudos to Charles Leclerc in fighting with fair, clean racing for the lead. P2 is still a solid result. The next event is the Singapore Grand Prix in a week’s time, so expect another street fight for victory.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:32:58.007
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +10.910s
3 George Russell Mercedes +31.328s
4 Lando Norris McLaren +36.143s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +77.098s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +85.468s
7 Alexander Albon Williams +87.396s
8 Franco Colapinto Williams +89.541s
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +92.401s
10 Oliver Bearman Haas +93.127s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +93.465s
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +117.189s
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB +146.907s
14 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +148.841s
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF
Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF
Yuki Tsunoda RB DNF
Oscar Piastri claimed victory at the end of a captivating Azerbaijan Grand Prix, narrowly beating Charles Leclerc to the chequered flag in a race-long, multi-car battle on the streets of Baku, as Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz dramatically crashed out late on.
Piastri trailed pole-sitter Leclerc in the early stages of the 51-lap encounter but overhauled him shortly after the front-runners’ sole pit stop phase, with Perez – and eventually Sainz – joining them to make it a tense, four-way scrap for honours.
It was Piastri who ultimately came out on top, having expertly defended P1 on several occasions and gained a little bit of breathing space when Leclerc’s tyres faded in the closing laps, which pushed the Ferrari into the clutches of Perez and Sainz.
Drama ensued at the start of the penultimate lap when a failed pass on Leclerc led to Perez going wheel-to-wheel with Sainz – the pair spectacularly colliding on the run between Turns 2 and 3 and ending their afternoons in the concrete wall.
While the race ended under the Virtual Safety Car, there was no stopping the celebrations for McLaren and Piastri, who reflected on “the most stressful afternoon of my life” to bag a second Grand Prix win and helped McLaren move to the top of the constructors’ championship.
Behind Piastri and Leclerc, a big winner from the clash between Perez and Sainz was George Russell, who took an unlikely podium in his Mercedes, while Lando Norris – on an alternative strategy from P15 – passed title rival Max Verstappen for P4 late in the race.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-edges-out-leclerc-for-dramatic-azerbaijan-gp-win-amid-late-race.3ZnRWkx1JNAx8lX8HbS2py
Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz were involved in a huge accident in the closing stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as they squabbled over a podium place.
With the Red Bull of Perez battling for the lead for much of the race, the Mexican made a move on the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, only to be backed into Sainz.
Sainz battled past and was then tussling with team-mate Leclerc, only for Perez to fight back and pull alongside before the two collected one another after turn two.
Both smashed into the barrier and missed out on respective big points hauls, with Perez, in particular, fuming over the team radio.
Having struggled for form of late, Perez was back to his best on the streets of Baku and had stayed on the back of Leclerc’s battle with race winner Oscar Piastri for the second half of the grand prix.
Sainz was more measured, asking “what happened” as the pair clambered free of their wrecked cars, with a virtual safety car deployed for the remainder of the race.
The shunt actually helped Leclerc hang on to second, having seen his rear tyres drop off a cliff after following the McLaren of Piastri for so long.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/perez-and-sainz-crash-out-on-penultimate-lap-azerbaijan-gp/10654536/
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc admitted he didn’t defend well enough against Oscar Piastri as he lost an Azerbaijan Grand Prix win to the McLaren driver following a scintillating duel.
Leclerc started on pole for the fourth consecutive time on the streets of Baku, but after the only pitstop sequence of the race, second-placed Piastri made an audacious lunge into Turn 1 on lap 20 to snatch the lead away from the Monegasque.
Leclerc stayed with the Australian for the remainder of the race and made several attempts to repass him into the same corner with the help of DRS, but as his hard tyres faded the Ferrari man had to settle for second instead.
Leclerc admitted he was surprised by Piastri’s late Turn 1 move and realised he should have tried to defend rather than return to the racing line early, thinking Piastri was surely too far back to try anything.
“To be honest, we lost the race where I didn’t quite defend as well as I should have at the end of the straight,” said Leclerc. “But it is the way it is. Sometimes you do mistakes, and I’ll learn from it.
“When Oscar overtook me, I was like: ‘Okay, now it’s just a matter of staying calm, trying to keep those tyres [alive] and overtake him again later on’.
“But actually, it was a lot more difficult than that and on the straights I couldn’t get as close as I wanted. I think maybe McLaren had a little bit less downforce, so on the straights they were very quick. In the corners we were a bit quicker.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-rues-not-defending-harder-against-piastri-azerbaijan-turn-1-move/10654570/
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner pointed the blame at Carlos Sainz after the Ferrari clashed with Sergio Perez towards the end of a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
With the pair squabbling over third place coming out of turn 2 on the penultimate lap, they had a coming together that resulted in both cars hitting the barriers and bringing out a virtual safety car for the remainder of the race.
Having scored just 36 points in the last 10 rounds, Perez was back to his best on the streets of Baku and had been chasing the leading duo of Oscar Piastri – the eventual winner – and Charles Leclerc for the second half of the grand prix.
His frustration was clear as he swore over the team radio following the crash, with Horner in no doubt where he felt the blame lay.
“He deserved a lot more. I was just looking at the replay and you can see Carlos start to drift across the circuit. So, very disappointing, he should at very least have been on the podium today,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“You have to look at what will be imposed for the following weekend (in terms of a potential penalty for Sainz), it has destroyed the race for Checo today, cost us a lot of damage and obviously vital points in the constructors’ championship.”
Meanwhile, Sainz reckoned the blame lay with Perez. “I did my normal racing line,” the Ferrari driver claimed. “I didn’t do any strange maneuver or anything. And for some reason that I still don’t understand, we collided and yeah, I think he had plenty of space to the left.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/horner-blames-sainz-for-late-crash-with-perez-at-f1-azerbaijan-gp/10654604/
Oscar Piastri expressed his delight – and relief – after coming out on top in a fierce battle for victory during Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, having been hounded by Charles Leclerc over the second half of the race.
Leclerc maintained his pole position advantage at the start to lead the opening stint, but Piastri piled the pressure on shortly after the front-runners made their sole pit stops to swap medium tyres for hards – getting within DRS range and attacking for P1.
At the start of Lap 20, Piastri boldly dived up the inside of Leclerc to complete the move and, while the Ferrari driver clung on and tried to fight back on several occasions, the Australian had just enough in hand to maintain position.
Leclerc’s fading tyres gave Piastri a little bit of respite in the closing laps, before a dramatic crash involving Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz brought out the Virtual Safety Car and confirmed the second Grand Prix win of his career.
Reflecting on the battle, Piastri said: “I tried at the start of the race to get in front but once I dropped out of DRS [range] 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 and I had to go for it.
“I knew that if I didn’t get past at the start of the stint, I was never going to get past, so 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.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-relieved-after-hanging-on-for-dear-life-to-beat-leclerc-and-claim.1yY69BAEceNgne9jTFkMJI