Month: September 2024

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

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc achieves his fourth successive pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while an error in Q1 left Lando Norris just P17 on the grid.

A dominant Leclerc held off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by three tenths, with both his Q3 laps good enough for pole as the Scuderia driver extended his Baku qualifying form. Piastri managed to hold off Carlos Sainz to be on the front row.

Sergio Perez confirmed his strong Baku weekend form by outqualifying teammate Max Verstappen for the first time this season. Perez took fourth, with George Russell splitting the Red Bulls in fifth ahead of the current championship leader.

Lewis Hamilton was seventh ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, while rookie Franco Colapinto starred on his second outing with Williams, heading into Q3 in sixth and then outqualifying teammate Albon for ninth position.

Albon was bizarrely sent out for his final run with the airbox fan still attached to the car, but after unsuccessfully urging the marshals to help at pit exit, Albon managed to remove the device himself.

Albon still managed to set a lap, although he may well have compromised his tyre warm-up to find himself behind Colapinto.

McLaren’s title contender Norris, who is looking to further reduce his 62-point gap to championship leader Max Verstappen, hit a setback as he got eliminated in Q1.

Due to dramatic track evolution on the low-grip Baku street circuit, most frontrunners needed a third, error-free soft tyre run to safeguard a spot in Q2.

But Norris, who had been shuffled into the drop zone, made a mistake on the final run by sliding over the high Turn 16 kerbs, before seeing his lap definitively ruined by what the team thought was a yellow flag for Esteban Ocon coasting home in his punctured Alpine.

Norris backed off and was forced to pit instead, with his previous best only good enough for P17 on the grid.

Norris will line up behind RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, with Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in P18 and P19, and Ocon last after touching the wall. Ocon had already lost valuable track time after losing FP1 due to a hybrid engine problem and being stranded in FP2 with a fuel system issue.

In Q2 Haas rookie Oliver Bearman missed the cut to Q3 by one tenth after ruing a slight error, but Ollie still impressively fought back from an FP3 crash to outqualify his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg.

Bearman will start P11 ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Gasly, followed by Hulkenberg and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.

So a very close qualifying session at Baku with Monza winner Charles Leclerc taking pole position. It will be fascinating to see if Lando Norris can recover from his shocking Q1 exit in the race.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:41.365
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:41.686
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:41.805
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:41.813
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:41.874
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:42.023
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:42.289
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:42.369
9 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:42.530
10 Alexander Albon Williams 1:42.859
11 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:42.968
12 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:43.035
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:43.179
14 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:43.191
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:43.404
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:43.547
17 Lando Norris McLaren 1:43.609
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:43.618
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:44.246
20 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:44.504

Charles Leclerc achieved a fantastic and emotional victory for Scuderia Ferrari at Monza. The team beat rival McLaren thanks to a single pitstop strategy to take the top spot at the Italian Grand Prix in front of the passionate tifosi crowd.

Leclerc delighted Ferrari’s home crowd in a strategic triumph to beat Oscar Piastri, after hanging on to the tyres in a one-stop strategy.

Leclerc managed to hold on from a rapidly closing Piastri, who had much fresher tyres thanks to a two-stop strategy, and crossed the finishing line with a 2.884-second lead – the home fans becoming more audibly ecstatic in the closing laps as the tactical gambit became clear.

The Monaco Grand Prix winner looked set to follow the pack on a two-stopper, a decision he had initially questioned as Ferrari responded to an undercut attempt from polesitter Lando Norris.

Norris initially looked like he had got over his first-lap drama with a clean start to cover off teammate Piastri from pole, but appeared surprised by Piastri’s overtake attempt around the outside at the Variante della Roggia. This put Norris off-line, allowing Leclerc to also trickle through.

Although the Ferrari driver could not stay in touch with Piastri, it became clear that the overall level of tyre wear was moving the race into two-stop territory, a strategy that McLaren opted to move towards with relatively early opening stops. Leclerc lost track position through his earlier-than-expected reaction to Norris, but crucially managed to maintain tyre performance.

And, although McLaren asked Piastri if he was able to one-stop, Oscar responded in the negative – giving Leclerc the lead from teammate Carlos Sainz.

With neither Ferrari stopping again, Sainz managed to do his part in keeping Piastri at bay for a handful of laps, stalling the McLaren driver out enough to ensure Leclerc had more buffer to play with.

This became a thrilling final few laps with Piastri reducing away at Leclerc’s lead with a considerable tyre advantage – but, ultimately, it proved not to be enough; Leclerc wins and cause waves of euphoria around the Monza circuit.

Piastri admitted that it “hurt” to finish second, noting that the graining issue that affected the McLarens might have cleared up with more laps, but nonetheless had cut a gap that stood at 11.9 seconds after he had passed Sainz to 2.7 seconds in just nine laps.

Norris recovered to third, having not expected Piastri’s first-corner move; the two were granted permission to race, but Norris was unable to sufficiently close in on his teammate throughout the race – having particularly been affected by contra-strategy runner Max Verstappen as the championship leader sought to help his cause.

Sainz hit the limit of his tyres despite a four-lap advantage over Leclerc, losing his grasp on a podium place to both McLarens at the close of the race, but nonetheless had enough margin to stay ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

Hamilton managed to hold off an early assault from Verstappen which set him up for fifth, as the Red Bull driver suffered a slow stop and a disappointing final stint to make no inroads towards the Mercedes driver. George Russell recovered from a first-lap off, having been pushed by Piastri at the start, and front wing damage to finish seventh.

The Mercedes driver battled gamely with Sergio Perez and shrugged off the Checo’s robust defence to steal past. Alex Albon was classified ninth, despite finishing behind Kevin Magnussen on track; the Haas driver was handed a 10-second penalty for a minor clash with Pierre Gasly during his ascent up the order – the two concluding one-stop strategies in the points.

Fernando Alonso just missed out on the top ten by just 0.143 seconds when Magnussen’s penalty was applied, as Franco Colapinto finished his first Formula 1 race in P12 for Williams.

So a fantastic result for Ferrari at home with Charles Leclerc winning the Italian Grand Prix for the second time. McLaren should’ve won this race thanks to a faster car but Ferrari pulled off a superior strategy – one compared to two – to take victory. Kudos Scuderia and Leclerc.

Italian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrai 1:14:40.727
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +2.664s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +6.153s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +15.621s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +22.820s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +37.932s
7 George Russell Mercedes +39.715s
8 Serio Perez Red Bull +54.148s
9 Alex Albon Williams +67.456s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +68.302s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +68.495s
12 Franco Colapinto Williams +81.308s
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB +93.452s
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
16 Valterri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
18 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
20 Yuki Tsunoda RB DNF