Race Report: Piastri passes Leclerc for Azerbaijan GP win

Sep 15, 2024

BAKU CITY CIRCUIT, AZERBAIJAN - SEPTEMBER 15: Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, leads Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24 during the Azerbaijan GP at Baku City Circuit on Sunday September 15, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Dom Romney / LAT Images)

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri made his bold pass on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stick to take victory for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix with George Russel in third for Mercedes.

The race in Baku was an exercise in DRS and hybrid power deployment for both offense and defense for most of the day. Oscar managed to get around Leclerc and then held the Ferrari off with DRS and good use of his stored energy in defense.

It was a great drive from Piastri who drove a brilliant defense for much of the race leading to Leclerc’s tires eventually calling it a day. Thanks to a dual DNF from Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, George Russell inherited third on the podium.

Win

A big win for Oscar and McLaren who snatched the win from Ferrari’s hands. Oscar drove brilliantly and managed to do just enough to keep Leclerc behind him but save enough tires to the end. I was concerned he may use up too much of his tires and with Ferrari’s ability to manage their tires, this might have left Oscar vulnerable but it was the other way around for Piastri. A great recover drive from Lando Norris saw him beat Max Verstappen and this gave McLaren the lead in the Constructor’s Championship over Red Bull by 20 points. A big day for McLaren!

A win for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc who managed to take pole and continue their progress toward the front of the grid. Sure, they wanted to win but Charles just couldn’t get back around Piastri and eventually cooked his rear tires trying. A shame as Charles looked great all weekend.

A big win for Williams Racing who got both cars into the points moving the team ahead of Alpine in the Constructor’s Championship. A huge win for Franco Colapinto for a P8 finish just behind his teammate Alex Albon in P7!

A win for Fernando Alonso in P6 as Lance Stroll retired from race. Lando had a relatively lonely race but good points for Aston Martin nonetheless.

A win for George Russell who has a habit of being there when others fall short. This time, he made the podium due to the Perez/Sainz debacle and it’s a good result for the team and George.

Also a win for Haas F1’s Ollie Bearman scored a point.

Fail

A fail for Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz who both threw away a potential podium spot in the final Laps of the race and brought out the Virtual Safety Car in the process. Sainz drifted slightly left toward the racing line and Perez was also moving toward the racing line leaving the Stewards to suggest that it was merely a racing incident with no penalties or blame apportionment. A shame that Perez, who seemed to find his pace, ended in the wall instead of the podium.

Rough races for Alpine and RB with all four drivers struggling at the back and Yuki Tsunoda joining Lance Stroll as a DNF. Also a bit of a fail for Haas who didn’t get both cars into the points in a race with attrition like Williams were able to do.

WTH

Not sure what happened to Max but he had no bite and then no grip and then brake issues. Many suggest their developments over the season are a step backwards and that may be the case but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a development road map actually drop a car’s performance off this profoundly. Meanwhile Sergio Perez was on for a podium so there is certainly something odd going on over at Red Bull with Max Verstappen’s car.

Four cars out of the race and Sauber still can’t score a point…that’s harsh!

Pirelli’s View:

The majority of drivers (14) opted to start on the Medium tyre. The Hard was chosen by Lando Norris (McLaren), Alexander Albon (Williams), Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls), Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) and both Alpine drivers (Ocon and Gasly). As expected, the one-stop strategy proved the most effective in terms of tyre management: only two drivers, Stroll and Verstappen, pitted twice, but in these cases the stops were not for strategic reasons: The Canadian had a puncture as a result of a collision with Tsunoda on the opening lap and the Dutchman pitted again because he tried to set the race fastest lap in the closing stages, able to come down pit lane without losing position.

The longest stint of all was driven by Pierre Gasly (Alpine), who completed 50 laps on the Hard, only pitting on the penultimate lap to switch to Softs. As for the Medium, Alex Albon made the most use of it, doing a long 20 lap second stint on the C4.

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT

“A fortnight on from the Italian Grand Prix, we have been treated to another really thrilling race, with the outcome unclear from the first lap to the last. In Monza we saw two different strategies in play, but today, almost everyone went with the same choice, but in no way did that detract from the on-track action, with a long three way fight for the lead, as well as several others battles throughout the race.

“For this weekend and indeed the next one, we have gone with the same choice of dry compounds, which worked as expected, adapting very well to the track characteristics and conditions. Going into the event, the Soft was clearly going to be a qualifying tyre and the Hard the quickest for the race, with the Medium as a great compromise for the first part of the race: between yesterday and today we saw those predictions confirmed.

“Even today, the track continued to rubber-in. It meant the lap times continued to improve and degradation was pretty limited. A few drivers experienced graining, especially in the first stint, but it did not significantly affect their performance. Clearly, running in traffic made life complicated in terms of tyre management, but that is pretty much inevitable with the current aerodynamic configuration of these cars.”

Azerbaijan GP Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren Mercedes	51	1:32:58.007	25
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	51	+10.910s	18
3	63	George Russell	Mercedes	51	+31.328s	15
4	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Mercedes	51	+36.143s	13
5	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	51	+77.098s	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	51	+85.468s	8
7	23	Alexander Albon	Williams Mercedes	51	+87.396s	6
8	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams Mercedes	51	+89.541s	4
9	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	51	+92.401s	2
10	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas Ferrari	51	+93.127s	1
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas Ferrari	51	+93.465s	0
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine Renault	51	+117.189s	0
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB Honda RBPT	51	+146.907s	0
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber Ferrari	51	+148.841s	0
15	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine Renault	50	+1 lap	0
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber Ferrari	50	+1 lap	0
17	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	49	DNF	0
18	55	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	49	DNF	0
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	45	DNF	0
NC	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB Honda RBPT	14	DNF	0

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4 Comments

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J S (@guest_214571)

2 years ago

#214571

Something very odd going on at Red Bull indeed… Here’s my (not so crazy?) conspiracy theory. This is really just a bit of fun and is based on the argument that F1 is more of a for-profit show these days than a true sport, and boy are those profits juicy in the modern era! Also bear in mind that corruption is standard business practice for multi-national corporations, and F1 is certainly no stranger to conspiracy. Anyway, here it is. RB have been so dominant over the last few years and were initially running away with the 2024 championship to such… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by J S

-2

Worthless Opinion (@guest_214573)

Reply to J S

#214573

I don’t know if you’ve nailed it exactly, but it IS interesting how all these new fans were fleeing F1 and all the sudden Max’s car goes from twice as fast as everyone else to half as fast. The non-conspiracy theory is almost harder to believe.

PMR (@guest_214580)

#214580

Don’t forget the McLaren and Merc flexi front wings. Whenever RBR had flexi wings in the past it would be banned within two races at most. And now, while onboard video clearly shows this, FIA has to ‘gather more evidence’. something stinks here, and it aint the fish

Worthless Opinion (@guest_214572)

#214572

So this late race incident demonstrates the question i asked about a year ago, which was mentioned on the podcast but not really answered. When max was careening across the track on starts (like COTA) i asked what if the other car didnt give and they crash, who’s at fault? Apparently the answer from the fia is ‘no one’, which isn’t a very proud moment for a rule system. If i had to call it i’d blame sergio, under the theory that, as the car in front, Carlos’ only obligation was to leave a car’s width to the track edge… Read more »

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Pirelli’s View:

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT

Azerbaijan GP Results:

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