F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024 Review: Oscar Piastri puts in sublime drive to take pole

While all eyes were on McLaren’s Lando Norris at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, it was his young teammate, Oscar Piastri, who stole the show once again with a near-flawless drive to pick up his second career win.

Charles Leclerc, who started on pole for a fourth time in Baku, once again missed out on a win as he finished second, while a late crash involving Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez saw George Russell steal away a third-place finish. 

Piastri’s win and a strong recovery from Norris also means that McLaren have taken the lead of the Constructors’ championship from Red Bull, while Max Verstappen’s title lead has now been cut down to 59 points. 

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Leclerc, now a quadruple pole-sitter at Baku, got a clean start off the line as the lights went out, keeping Piastri at bay. Behind them, Pérez made up a place on Sainz on the opening lap, as did Verstappen on Russell.

Norris, the other championship contender, who started P17, was pushed out to P15 as Lewis Hamilton started from the pit lane. By Lap 8, he had passed Haas’ stand-in Oliver Bearman to move into the points places, trying to limit the damage following a disastrous Saturday. 

Verstappen and Russell came in for their pit stops together on Lap 13, both switching to the hard compounds. The Dutchman re-joined in P10, while Russell came out two places behind. Hamilton soon followed suit, though a relatively slow stop from his crew saw him re-join in P18.

Verstappen was immediately moving up places on the hard compounds, which he looked much more comfortable on as he passed former teammate Daniel Ricciardo on the main straight for P9. Ricciardo then lost another position a couple of laps later as Russell dropped him out of the points places.

Piastri was the first of the front three to pit, on Lap 16, and re-joined in P4 just ahead of Pérez, who had been kept behind just enough by Norris to help out his teammate.

While there was action going on ahead, VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda retired on Lap 16 after taking significant damage to his sidepod following his clash with Lance Stroll on the opening lap. 

Race leader Leclerc came in for his stop on Lap 17 and re-joined in second place, Sainz inheriting the lead in the meantime, although the Spaniard was called in the following lap for his stop which saw Leclerc re-take the lead.

Piastri was pressing Leclerc, keeping himself under a second from the Monégasque and denying him driver a DRS advantage. The Australian driver put in a stunning late move on Lap 20 as he went on the inside of Leclerc on the main straight to take the lead. After dropping to P2, Leclerc was put under further pressure by Pérez, who was also creeping up on the Ferrari driver. 

While Piastri was leading up front, his teammate was losing places in the midfield, with Sainz passing him and Norris having his title rival all over his gearbox. Russell then picked off Verstappen on Lap 34 for P6, with Norris just ahead of them, although the McLaren driver was yet to pit.

With ten laps to go, Leclerc was trying his level best to get past Piastri, but the latter was driving a near-flawless race to keep him at bay.

While it was a tight battle up ahead, Stroll became the second retiree of the race on Lap 47.

While Piastri was just getting out of Leclerc’s reach, Sainz caught up to Pérez. While Leclerc was struggling, Pérez tried to get by but he was backed up into by Sainz, who got past him only for the two to come together on the penultimate lap, which sent them crashing into the barriers. The Virtual Safety Car was immediately deployed, and the crash saw Russell move up into the final podium place.

The race eventually finished with the VSC on the track, with Piastri picking up his second career win while Leclerc finished second ahead of Russell. Norris ended up fourth after starting P15, while Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto, Hamilton, and Bearman rounded out the podium places. 

Racing will be back next weekend as the grid heads to Singapore for another street circuit race.