The previous Grands Prix have been exciting ones, with several different teams outside of Red Bull taking P1 each weekend. But this last one—the Azerbaijan GP—might be one of this season’s most exciting and dramatic yet.
You’ve probably read the headline: McLaren is now in the lead among the constructors as its budding superstar Oscar Piastri—papaya rules notwithstanding—just nabbed the second race win of his career. His teammate Lando Norris, meanwhile, finish fourth, adding to the huge points haul for McLaren over the weekend. That, however, doesn’t even tell half of the story.
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What the headlines don’t say is that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who started at pole position led for the first half of the race before Piastri overtook him at Lap 20. It was at that point when the two drivers along with Red Bull’s Checo Perez began the constant three-way battle at the podium positions for the remainder of the race.
Piastri was constantly defending against Leclerc lap in and lap out, but towards the final laps, Leclerc started to lose rear traction due to tire wear. This led to Piastri widening the gap between P1 and P2, while Perez who was then in P3 started to attack Leclerc. At this point, the second Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. had also caught up in P4, and it was now a three-way battle for second.
After some tight wheel-to-wheel action at the penultimate lap, Sainz and Perez collided between Turns 2 and 3, resulting in the race ending with a virtual safety car. Russell eventually moved up to P3, and that was how Norris earned P4.
“I knew that if I didn’t get past at 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 hang on for dear life for the next 35 laps,” said Piastri. “The last couple of laps, once [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. It definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career.”
Norris, for his part, had a strong outing, starting in P15 after a dismal qualifying and clawing his way back up to P6. His last overtake of the race was easily his most important one, as it was against championship leader Max Verstappen, who himself was having a forgettable weekend.
The entirety of Baku was anything but forgettable, though. With eight races left and the standings as tight as ever, we know it can only get better from here.
