McLaren’s Oscar Piastri wins Azerbaijan Grand Prix thriller

BAKU – McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had “one of the better races” of his career, as he held off pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari for an epic Azerbaijan Grand Prix win on Sept 15, with Mercedes’ George Russell in third.

Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris finished fourth to reduce the lead of Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen (who finished fifth) in the drivers’ standings to 59 points with seven races and three sprints to go.

Crucially, McLaren (476 points) have now overtaken Red Bull (456) in the constructors’ championship standings.

“It definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career,” said Piastri.

“The last couple of laps when 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. 

“I think considering where we started when I joined the team last year, we were literally last and now we’re leading the world championship. It’s a credit to the team for the turnaround in the last 18 months, and they’ve improved me as well. It’s a massive team effort and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”

There was late drama on the streets of Baku when Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull collided, with the race ending under a virtual safety car.

Leclerc held the lead after his fourth successive pole in Baku until Lap 20 when Piastri nipped past him. A dogfight between the Australian and the man from Monaco ensued, with Piastri holding on to claim his second career win after Hungary in July.

“McLaren and Oscar have done an exceptional job and done better than us,” said Leclerc.

“A huge shame for Carlos on the last laps, hopefully everyone is OK and obviously not a great day for the team.

“I think maybe McLaren had less downforce and in the straights they were very quick. I couldn’t get as close as I wanted and eventually we lost the race when I didn’t defend as well as I could have at the end of the straight. Sometimes you make mistakes and I’ll learn from it.”

Verstappen, who has not won in seven races, leads the 2024 drivers’ standings on 313 points.

Norris, who gained an extra point for the fastest lap, is on 254 points ahead of the Sept 20-22 Singapore Grand Prix.

Russell, meanwhile, said Mercedes had a “really bad start to the race” but was nonetheless glad for a podium place.

“But on the hard tyre I think we were one of the quickest out there, got past Max and then an added bonus is finishing on the podium,” the Briton added.

“I was surprised the safety car didn’t come out sooner at the end, those cars could have been anywhere. I’m glad everyone is OK.”

On the next races, he said: “We’ve got to be realistic, we should have finished fifth today, that was the true result. With Lando’s qualifying yesterday he probably would have been up there as well so I don’t want to get carried away with ourselves with this podium. We have a lot of work to do and hopefully Singapore is a slightly better weekend.”

Behind the top five, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished sixth, ahead of the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, while Mercedes’ former world champion Lewis Hamilton was ninth.

Ollie Bearman, standing in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen, was 10th for Haas ahead of his teammate Nico Hulkenberg. He became the first driver to score points on debut with two different teams.

Hamilton and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) started from the pit lane following overnight power unit overhauls and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) from the back of the grid after being excluded from qualifying for a fuel flow infringement.
AFP, REUTERS