Azerbaijan GP: Oscar Piastri Wins Thrilling Race In Baku As McLaren Continues To Challenge Red Bull's F1 Title Defense
As Max Verstappen continued to suffer huge setbacks in races, Oscar Piastri won his first Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan - second race victory in his career - following a dramatic ending with Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz ghastly colliding in the closing laps.
Baku was intriguing with spells of chaos in the course of the race . However, the beginning was thrilling with Charles Leclerc poling from Turn One of the first lap. He maintained that position, and his teammate, Sainz soon trailed him, keeping Piastri and Perez at bay.
While the Mercedes duo were having a quiet race for much of the laps, the frontline cars were battling for the podium but Leclerc later lost pole to Piastri, who finished quickest in 1:32:58.00725.
Leclerc did not just drop behind Piastri, Ferarri choice of tyres against their rivals seemed not to work out as planned. For McLaren, Piastri pitting plan gave him the advantage on his tyres over both Sainz and Perez, who had overtaken to trail in second. Piastri come out of the pit on better tyres to move up to second ahead of both driver.
"I thought I would stick with him and overtake himbagai once the tyres were up to temperature," Leclerc recalled after the race. "But that opportunity never arose again. They were too quick on the straight.
With much fresher tyres, Leclerc could not keep Piastri at bay, and while on DRS, he sped by to move up in front on Lap 20. For the rest of the race, Leclerc kept his position battling off Perez and Sainz until both crashed out with only one lap remaining.
How VSC Happened?
It was a tough battle fighting for podium position between Perez and Sainz. While Leclerc was able to keep both drivers in the trail despite running on older tyres, Sainz and Perez were having a battle until Turn One of Lap 50 when they collided.
Perez had first challenged Leclerc to his position and could not get past. In the mix of that, Sainz moved ahead of Perez and while Sainz was slightly getting ahead, Perez moved in on the inside to gain DRS and both locked tyres and crashed into the walls. The race ended with virtual safety car being deployed.
Russell, Norris and Verstappen
Neither of these two were in the frontline battle but Norris displayed an incredible pace over his rival, Verstappen. Norris had first moved ahead of the defending champion following a pit stop on Lap 24. The Red Bull tried to recover the position but Norris held him off.
George Russell gained DRS on lap 35 to glide past Verstappen and moved up to sixth while the Red Bull driver dropped behind to seventh. Verstappen setback compounded as Norris recovered sixth position, gaining DRS on him and sped by with three laps remaining.
With Perez and Sainz crashing out on lap 50 and virtual safety car deployed, Russell moved up to podium position in third and Norris moved to fourth ahead of Verstappen in fifth.
Defending the F1 championship title continues to get slimmer for Verstappen as he now lead by 59 points ahead of his closest rival, Lando Norris.
Top 10 of the Azerbaijan GP standings:
- Oscar Piastri - McLaren
- Charles Leclerc - Ferarri
- George Russell - Mercedes
- Lando Norris - McLaren
- Max Verstappen - Red Bull
- Fernando Alonso - Aston Martins
- Alex Albion - William
- Franco Colapinto - William
- Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
- Oliver Bearman - Haas
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