Oscar Piastri took his second Formula 1 victory at this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix after passing and defending 2nd-place finisher Charles Leclerc.
After a ruthless overtake on Leclerc at the beginning of his second stint Australia’s Oscar Piastri managed to hold off the Ferrari for another 30 laps to finish over ten seconds ahead at the flag.
Polesitter Charles Leclerc led the field away on Lap 1 maintaining the lead while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez managed to jump Carlos Sainz to take third place.
Leclerc looked in control of the race after extending his lead to almost six seconds before the first and only round of pit stops for the front runners.
Red Bull were the first to strike when they pitted Sergio Perez on lap 13 in an attempt to undercut second-place Piastri. However, McLaren were able to use long running Lando Norris who started P16 to block Perez before Piastri could pit. The Australian came in two laps later and came out just under a second ahead of Perez.
Flying on his new tyres, Piastri was able to catch up to leader Charles Leclerc and pull off a daring move under braking for the lead on lap 19. Leclerc later revealed that he didn’t fight Piastri too hard as he expected to take the lead back later in the stint.
With only one round of pit stops, Leclerc had to retake the lead on track and spent the rest of the race attacking Piastri’s lead. Overtaking opportunities were limited with Baku’s turn one serving as Leclerc’s only real chance for a pass. Leclerc was able to get alongside Piastri multiple times throughout the second stint, but some brilliant defending from the Australian kept him ahead of the Ferrari.
After many laps of battling Piastri, Leclerc’s tyres eventually fell off pulling him into the clutches of Sainz and Perez. Fighting hard for the podium, Sainz and Perez came together on the back straight. After a tussle between Sainz, Perez, and Leclerc in the first sequence of corners, Perez’s front wheels rubbed Sainz’s rear wheels driving them both into the wall. A frustrated Perez made his frustration clear over the radio but a post-race investigation by the stewards deemed the clash a racing incident.
The race finished under VSC with Piastri taking the win, Leclerc coming home in second and Russell promoted to a podium spot after the flag.
Further down the grid, championship contender Lando Norris managed to catch up to Max Verstappen and pass for some crucial points in the championship. McLaren opted to run Norris long for the first stint holding up Verstappen who was unable to get by Norris in the early stages of the race.
Fernando Alonso came home sixth behind Lando and Max followed by a double points finish for Williams and a first-points finish for rookie Franco Colapinto in only his second race.
Ollie Bearman won an amazing tenth place in his first race for Haas and his second race in F1 after replacing Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
Formula 1 returns to the streets of Marina Bay for the Singapore Grand Prix on September 22nd.
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