F1 Azerbaijan: Piastri claims second win of the season

Oscar Piastri clinched victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, outpacing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen had a challenging day, only managing to claim fifth place. The race’s penultimate lap saw a dramatic crash between Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, which ultimately awarded Russell third place.

F1 Azerbaijan GP: Victorious Piastri

Initially, Leclerc was in the winning stage leading Piastri by six seconds before the first pit stops. Piastri pitted on lap 16 and managed to stay ahead of Perez, while McLaren’s Lando Norris tactfully held up the Red Bull driver in the middle sector. Leclerc pitted a lap later but took time to warm up his hard tyres, allowing Piastri to overtake to take the corner on lap 20.

From that point until the closing laps, Leclerc and Piastri were never more than a second apart as they battled wheel to wheel multiple times. Each time Leclerc attempted to take the corner, Piastri thwarted him by blocking any opportunity to get alongside on the corner’s exit. The tactics employed by the McLaren driver prevented Leclerc from securing the top position.

Piastri said,  “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 because I knew that if I didn’t get past, I was, didn’t get past 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 hung on for dear life for the next 35 laps.”

Sergio Perez stayed within two seconds of the front two drivers, ready to take advantage of their mistakes, but Piastri and Leclerc kept the race clean. As Leclerc’s tyres started wearing out, Piastri pulled ahead in the final 5 laps and secured his second career F1 victory.

“The last couple of laps, once he 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, but no, I think that definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career,” Piastri explained after the win.

F1 Azerbaijan GP: Sainz and Perez crash

The battle for third place between Perez and Sainz ended in a crash for both drivers with just two laps remaining. In the final laps, Leclerc had to ward off Perez, who was right on his tail, while Sainz was catching up quickly. Leclerc managed to defend well, and when Perez overshot the first corner on the second-to-last lap, Sainz took advantage and passed him. Perez tried to retake the position at Turn Two, but he and Sainz collided and crashed into the wall, leading to the race ending under the Virtual Safety Car. 

After scoring only 36 points in the last ten races, Perez showed a strong performance in Baku but was frustrated and vocal over the team radio after crashing, blaming Horner because he felt the problem lay there. He said, “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.”

While Sainz reckoned the blame Perez said, “I did my normal racing line, I didn’t do any strange manoeuvre 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.”

F1 Azerbaijan GP: Rest of the pack

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had a quiet race, moving up to sixth due to the chaos ahead. Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto scored valuable points for Williams, securing seventh and eighth positions respectively. Lewis Hamilton, due to starting from the back due to engine issues, secured ninth position. Haas driver Ollie Bearman secured tenth position finishing just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Haas. Pierre Gasly moved up to twelfth after being disqualified from qualifying, followed by Daniel Ricciardo, Zhou Guanyu, and Esteban Ocon, all recovering from penalties. Valtteri Bottas finished last, while Perez, Sainz, Lance Stroll, and Yuki Tsunoda were out due to crashes and damage.