McLaren’s Oscar Piastri emerged victorious at the F1 2024 Azerbaijan GP, fending off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who was nipping at his heels for the majority of the race. A dramatic collision in the closing laps between the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez in the Red Bull saw the race finish under the Safety Car and the young Australian’s second victory secured. McLaren now lead the Constructors’ Championship, snatching the top spot from Red Bull.
The sessions this weekend in Baku have been dramatic but who came out on top? Here is what we learned from the F1 2024 Azerbaijan GP.
The latest pre-race news was that Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Esteban Ocon of Alpine have unfortunately had to start their race from the pit lane due to engine penalties. The real talk of the paddock after qualifying yesterday was championship contender Lando Norris’ failure to make it past Q1 after some poorly times yellow flags, forcing him to abort his lap. Norris started his race from P15. The team opted for the hard tyre to start Lando on, keen to cut through the pack back up to the top.
Lights Out:
As the five lights went out for the F1 2024 Azerbaijan GP, Leclerc got a solid start being able to retain his lead into the first two turns with Piastri breaking away from a battle for his P2 position. Pérez who is notorious for his impressive performance around this track quickly began to gain on Carlos Sainz ahead of him in P3. Williams rookie Colapinto did a fantastic job at holding onto P8 throughout this first lap. Lando Norris had a mighty job on his hands to work his way back up to the top positions, breezing through the RB’s and Sauber’s. Meanwhile, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was called into the pits after a very early puncture. This unfortunately came after brief contact with Yuki Tsunoda.
Oscar Piastri managed to stay at the tail of Charles Leclerc and kept his car within the DRS range just half a second behind him. Piastri did not let Leclerc escape, setting the first fastest lap of the race. After a mighty effort from Oscar, he eventually lost eight tenths to Leclerc and that gap was broken. Stroll’s early pit stop worked well in his favour as he began to undercut the back of the pack.
By lap eight, Charles Leclerc unleashed some tremendous pace after breaking the gap to Piastri. He provisionally claimed the fastest lap point and broke away by 2 seconds to Oscar. Simultaneously, George Russell reported with urgency that he suspected a plastic bag made it’s way into his car.
Tyre Whispering:
McLaren kept a close eye during the first ten laps on the state of Lando’s tyres. Despite the burning track temperature of 46 degrees, Norris’ engineer reported that his tyre management was stable with only risk of thermal degradation. While Lando was nursing his tyres into the points, Max Verstappen reported over the radio that he had “no bite” and was really struggling with the car’s balance.
By Lap 13, race leader Leclerc was cruising at a comfortable 4.4 seconds ahead of Piastri in P2. It has been success stories all around for Williams with Alex Albon upholding P5. Unfortunately for Colapinto, he had lost his points position dropping down to P14. Nicknamed ‘King of the streets’, Sergio Perez was absolutely flying and really making Norris work to defend him on his tail. However, a rather upset Pérez complained on the radio that Lando was holding him up, but eventually flew past him with ease.
Tsunoda Retires and Oscar Overtakes:
After Yuki’s lap one skirmish with Lance Stroll, the lasting damage turned out to be race ending for him. Tsunoda was the first retirement in Monza after multiple races; this was his second retirement in a row. Shortly after the lap 18 retirement, previous race leader Leclerc came into the pits and bolted on a set of hards. Oscar Piastri came back with blistering pace and took the lead from the inside. Leclerc tried everything to fight against this but to no avail. While the battle for P1 was raging on, Pérez was sneaking up behind in P3. Charles was under extreme pressure from the Red Bull behind and the Mclaren in front.
He reported over the radio that they were “pushing like crazy” and also complained about losing grip. Norris was quickly losing his mojo by the halfway mark of the race but still defended like a lion against Verstappen. Norris was passed by Sainz and Albon, likely due to exhausted tyres. Verstappen put this struggle to overtake down to brake failure which he reported over the team radio.
Ferrari’s Double Bluff:
There were concerns on the McLaren pitwall regarding Piastri’s tyre management. While the Aussie driver set some incredible pace, he overcooked his tyres too early. This left Leclerc at a promising advantage to retake the lead; slowly closing the gap once again. On lap 32, Alex Albon came into the pits, shaking up the order. This opened the door for Lando Norris to catch the top four with some encouragement over the radio. With every lap, Leclerc came closer and closer to the rear wing of Piastri but with great defence, stayed ahead.
While the fight for the F1 2024 Azerbaijan GP win powered on, Pérez was still creeping behind. Verstappen’s previous dominant display this season was fading as we watched Russell pass him at turn one with relative ease. It is clear that Max and the team do not have the car where they want it to be. It was torment for Charles as he came tantalisingly close to Piastri but just couldn’t pass him for the lead. To combat this, Ferrari issued a dummy call to box opposite McLaren. This was a true display of gamesmanship as times became desperate for the lead.
Despite Ferrari’s creative efforts to catch race leader Piastri out, he retained the lead. Unfortunately, the other McLaren of Lando Norris was falling behind. He had been running the rubber off of his tyres and consequentially lost some pace and dropped to P7.
With ten laps to go, the window was rapidly closing on Leclerc to retake the lead. He had a mammoth of a mission on his hands to clinch a potential victory. There really was no telling who would take the win until the very latter end of the race. Leclerc latched firmly onto Piastri’s rear wing. Amidst the cinematic battle for the top spot, Lance Stroll was unfortunately called into the pits for retirement. this was due to a suspected mechanical issue, likely related to his first lap skirmish. Leclerc charging though his hard tyre stint ended in tragedy as he dropped down to 2 seconds behind the leader. He reported over the radio that he had completely lost the rear. Charles’ mission shifted from taking the win to assisting Sainz against Perez.
Last Lap Tragedy:
Just as Leclerc had pulled a fantastic move against Perez to help Sainz with track position, disaster struck. Sainz saw the door open against Pérez but unfortunately this ended in a race ending crash for both drivers. This resulted in a virtual safety car being deployed which took the drivers to the end of the race under VSC conditions. Sergio Pérez expressed his anger over the team radio after the crash with Carlos Sainz equally as confused. Drama aside, The chequered flag came down and Oscar Piastri took the win. A deserved position after an incredible drive.
Feature Image Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Photo Gallery.
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