Oscar Piastri placed on a masterclass in defensive driving to assert his second profession victory on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix forward of pole-getter Charles Leclerc after a controversial penultimate-lap crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz which pressured the race to finish beneath the digital security automotive.
The end result places McLaren into the lead of the constructors’ championship for the primary time in a decade, with a 20-point benefit over Pink Bull.
Leclerc bought the right begin from pole and comfortably constructed a 6s buffer over the sphere whereas Piastri appeared to battle together with his opening set of mediums.
On a heat day that noticed observe temperatures soar to 110 levels F, the Australian’s early parries with the Monegasque quickly had him watching his rear-view mirrors for Sergio Perez, who had risen to 3rd place on the primary lap in pursuit of his first podium trophy since April.
Perez pulled the undercut set off first, switching to the onerous tire on lap 13. McLaren daringly left Piastri out two laps earlier than pitting him, deploying Lando Norris, who began fifteenth, as a roadblock to stop the Mexican from getting an undercut.
Piastri stopped for his personal set of hards and rejoined fractionally forward of Perez, and Leclerc adopted swimsuit on the next tour. However on the onerous tire the Ferrari seemed much less spectacular. Leclerc’s out-lap was slower than Piastri’s, bringing the McLaren into vary, and abruptly the pole-getter was pressured onto a defensive footing.
On lap 19 Piastri had hauled himself into DRS vary however not shut sufficient to sail previous – although the Australian didn’t want it. From a number of automotive lengths behind Leclerc, Piastri was magnificent on the brakes, mugging the Ferrari with an ideal dive down the within to emerge from the nook with the lead.
Leclerc tried to struggle again into Flip 2 however was rebuffed, and Piastri solely needed to cowl the within line at Flip 3 to cement his lead.
The race became a high-speed siege, with the 2 leaders pushing onerous by the center and ultimate sectors hoping to drive one another right into a important mistake exiting Flip 16 that might reward the next automobiles a slipstream.
A number of instances Leclerc and Piastri had been noticed sliding out of that essential nook, however each had been in any other case error free.
The tense stalemate got here to an finish on lap 46 of 51, when Leclerc’s 30-lap-old onerous tires abruptly gave up the ghost, their grip exhausted from the chase. Piastri bolted, escaping DRS vary that lap after which piling on an additional second on the next tour to place his victory past doubt after a well-known and grueling defensive drive.
“I went for a fairly large lunge however managed to drag it up, then held on for deal life for the subsequent 35 laps,” he mentioned of his race-winning transfer. “The final couple of laps as soon as [Leclerc] dropped out of DRS had been slightly bit extra enjoyable, however there’s no such factor as a calming lap round right here.
“That undoubtedly goes down as one of many higher races of my profession.”
Leclerc’s ache seemed certain to be compounded by his rivals massing behind his stricken Ferrari, with Perez on his tail and teammate Carlos Sainz hoping to make a late play for the rostrum.
Perez made his transfer on the penultimate lap, sweeping across the Ferrari’s exterior on the first flip, however Leclerc wasn’t ready to let the place go with out a struggle.
Mustering the final of the grip from his tires, he bought late on the brakes into the flip to harry Perez out huge and declare the nook. It price the Mexican momentum and allowed Sainz to brush into third. Sainz then had a rebuffed go searching Leclerc’s exterior into Flip 2, which in flip handed momentum again to Perez.
The pair ran aspect by aspect on the run to Flip 3 however dramatically got here collectively midway down the straight, triggering a giant smash that despatched each automobiles spearing into the within barrier. The digital security automotive was triggered to neutralize the race, permitting Leclerc to cruise to the end in second place.
LAP 50/51
WOW.
Leclerc defends from Perez, which permits Sainz previous, after which the Ferrari and Pink Bull collide into the obstacles on the run right down to Flip 3!
VSC deployed 🟡#F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/u8GzV3ONPA
— Method 1 (@F1) September 15, 2024
“We didn’t do any high-fuel operating on my aspect in FP1 and FP2 and went for a setup path that perhaps within the race was a bit tougher to handle,” he mentioned. “Particularly on the onerous tires I used to be actually struggling to maintain these rear tires, and in the direction of the top I actually thought in a single nook or two I might put it within the wall.
“Clearly not an incredible day for the staff.”
George Russell moved by the carnage to an unlikely podium end for Mercedes, having stopped early, on lap 12, to undercut Max Verstappen for the place he misplaced to the Dutchman off the road.
“Undoubtedly stunned,” Russell admitted. “We’ve bought to be lifelike nonetheless. We must always’ve completed fifth as we speak. That was the true end result.
“I don’t wish to get carried away with this podium as we speak. We’ve bought numerous work to do.”
Norris accomplished a wonderful restoration from fifteenth on the grid to fourth culminating in a lap-49 overtake on title rival Verstappen. The Briton began on the onerous tire and ran lengthy, to lap 37, earlier than switching to mediums on which he reeled in Verstappen by greater than a second a lap to take the place and take three factors out of the Dutchman’s lead, placing him 59 factors adrift.
Verstappen, who complained of a scarcity of grip and dodgy brakes all through the race, completed fifth forward of Fernando Alonso.
Williams teammates Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto each had wonderful races to complete seventh and eighth, scoring 10 factors to maneuver previous Alpine for eighth within the constructors standings.
Lewis Hamilton slogged from pit lane to ninth after an in a single day engine change, and Haas stand-in Oliver Bearman scored the ultimate level of the race for tenth, turning into the primary driver to attain factors for 2 completely different groups in his first two races, having stood in for Sainz at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia earlier within the yr.
