Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Sunday Round Up - Azerbaijan Grand Prix

15/9/2024

Oscar Piastri win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a race that featured drama, overtakes, and a collision two laps from the end. Charles Leclerc finishes in second place, with George inheriting third place after Perez and Sainz crash on lap 50.

McLaren takes the lead in the constructors championship by 20 points ahead of Red Bull for the first time since 2014. Colapinto and Albon both finished in the points for Williams, and Bearman scored points in his second F1 race.

Race Facts

Pierre Gasly started at the back of the grid after being disqualified from Qualifying because his car "exceeded the instantaneous fuel mass flow."
Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon started from the pit lane after taking new power units. With Zhou Guanyu starting from 17th after also taking a power unit change.
McLaren overtook Red Bull in the Constructors Championship.
Perez and Sainz crashed on lap 50, which is being investigated after the race.
Colapinto and Albon score points for Williams.
Oliver Bearman continues his points-scoring races. He has now raced in two races and scored points in both for two different teams.
Lando Norris finished 4th after starting in 16th.

Charles Leclerc started in Pole Position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for the fourth consecutive year at Baku.

Norris, Albon, Zhou, Gasly, and Ocon all started on hard tyres, with the rest of the grid starting on medium tyres.

Charles Leclerc held onto the lead into turn one and throughout the first lap, while Piastri remained behind in P2. However, Perez overtook Sainz at the first corner, with Verstappen and Norris both making up places on the first lap. Norris was the highest gainer on the first lap, gaining three places and moving into 12th. Meanwhile, Stroll hit a curb and gets a puncture, having to pit at the end of the first lap.

The top ten drivers break away from the rest of the pack going into lap two, with Tsunoda running in 11th, holding back the drivers behind him. Norris wasn't satisfied and overtook Tsunoda for 11th on lap two, with Hulkenberg following Norris through.

At the front, Leclerc broke away from DRS range on Piastri by lap three. Meanwhile, at the back, Hamilton, who started in the pit lane, had already overtaken Zhou, Bottas, and Tsunoda by lap four and was running in 15th.

Piastri stayed with Leclerc for the first five laps, staying just within the DRS zone, but wasn't close enough on lap five. Further back, Russell remained within the DRS range of Verstappen, battling for 5th and 6th place on lap six.

Norris continued his push to the front of the pack, battling with Bearman for P10. Norris overtook Bearman for P10 and ended up four seconds behind Albon for P9.

Leclerc continued to retain the lead into lap eight, now 2.408 ahead of Piastri setting the fastest lap times. Perez was just 1.194 second behind Piastri, closing in on the McLaren. Bearman was overtaken by his teammate for the weekend, Hulkenberg, on lap ten for 11th place.

On lap 11, Colapinto went into the pits, changed to hard tyres, and rejoined the track in 15th. Further forward, Verstappen was struggling with his tyres, over 4.5 seconds behind Sainz in 4th position. Alonso also pitted and rejoined just ahead of Colapinto in 14th.

Verstappen and Russell both pitted for hard tyres on lap 13 and rejoined the track in 10th and 12th positions, while Hamilton also pitted with a slow stop and rejoined in 18th.
Perez also pitted for hard tyres and rejoined the track in 6th, while Verstappen overtook Ricciardo for 9th.

Piastri was at risk of being undercut by Perez, with McLaren opting to keep Piastri out on lap 15. They realised their mistake, and McLaren asked Norris to hold up Perez for a couple of laps, allowing Piastri to pit on lap 16. It worked perfectly, with Norris holding Perez back for a short while, Perez overtook Norris while Piastri was in the pit lane, and Piastri rejoined the track ahead of Perez in 4th place.

Tsunoda retired on lap 16 after contact with Stroll on the first lap, and his side pod had a huge hole.

Leclerc pits on lap 17 and rejoins behind Sainz in P2 but in front of Albon, Piastri, and Perez. Sainz also pits on lap 18, rejoining in 6th. Piastri overtook Albon for P2 down the start-finish straight on lap 18, giving himself some breathing room with Perez.

On lap 19, Perez overtook Albon for P3 while Albon still pitted onto the hard tyres. But Perez was still 2.254 seconds behind Piastri in P2, and Leclerc was one second in front of Piastri. By lap 19, Norris had moved into P5 but had yet to pit, running on the hard tyres.

Piastri battles Leclerc for P1 and takes the lead of the Grand Prix on lap 20, running side by side with Leclerc having to slot behind Piastri into P2. The battle didn't stop, with Leclerc trying to overtake for the lead on lap 20, with Perez waiting patiently behind them both for one of them to make a mistake.

Further behind, Bearman and Hamilton battle for 14th, with Bearman not making it easy for the seven-time world champion.

The battle for the lead continued into lap 22, with a three-way battle between Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari. The front three drivers were within 1.5 seconds, with Albon six seconds behind them, with a second battle behind Albon, between Sainz, Norris, and Verstappen, all battling for 5th, 6th, and 7th.

Sainz overtook Albon and moved back up to fourth. Behind them, Norris and Verstappen battle for 6th and 7th position, with Norris staying ahead on lap 24. However, Norris has yet to pit.

At the halfway point (lap 25), the leaderboard was Piastri, Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, Albon, Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Alonso, Colapinto, Gasly, Hulkenberg, Bearman, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Zhou, Ocon, Bottas and then Stroll, with Tsunoda the only retirement on lap 26.

Norris and Verstappen struggle to get in front of Albon on lap 27. Both Norris and Albon have yet to pit after starting on hard tyres.

Leclerc was still on the back of Piastri on lap 28, with Perez 1.3 seconds behind Leclerc. Sainz is also 9 seconds behind Perez. Leclerc is closer to Piastri on lap 28 but not quite close enough, with Piastri defending well. The battle continues to lap 31 between the front three drivers.

Albon pits on lap 32 and rejoins the track in 10th after Norris, Verstappen and Russell lose significant time after being held up by Albon for a considerable number of laps.

Leclerc has another dive and tries to go down the inside on Piastri but doesn't quite make it on lap 33, with Perez waiting patiently for something to happen.

Russell overtakes Verstappen for 6th place as Verstappen continues complaining about his tyres and brakes.

Norris finally pits for medium tyres on lap 38 and rejoins the track in 7th ahead of Alonso and Albon but is 15.546 seconds behind Verstappen in 6th. Further behind rookies, Colapinto and Bearman battle hard with Hamilton for 11th, 12th, and 13th place on lap 39.

With ten laps to go, the battle between Piastri and Leclerc continued. Piastri continues to hold off the Ferrari, which was within DRS range of the leader.

Hamilton finally gets past Bearman on lap 41 into 12th while Norris eats time out of Verstappen on every lap, bringing down a 15-second gap to just over 10 seconds in four laps.

Sainz gets closer to Perez, but Perez stays behind Leclerc. Russell is fourth, but he is 15 seconds behind the front-pack.

Sainz joined Perez, Leclerc, and Piastri in the leading pack on lap 47 as Stroll retires with a breaking issue.

Leclerc drops down to 1.7 seconds from Piastri on lap 47 for the lead, with the four-way battle continuing. Leclerc has hit the cliff on his rear tyres, dropping back to 2.4 seconds behind Piastri on lap 48. Norris takes Verstappen on lap 49 for 6th place with Leclerc now 3.4 seconds behind Piastri.

With two laps to go, Perez tries to overtake Leclerc for P2 but runs wide, allowing Sainz to overtake Perez into P3. But Sainz and Piastri collide, and both hit the wall, taking them both out of the race.

Oscar Piastri wins the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in his second race win of the season, with McLaren also overtaking Red Bull to take first in the Constructors Championship! Leclerc finished in P2 and George Russell was once again in the right place at the right time to take P3.

Race Results

1) Oscar Piastri
2) Charles Leclerc +10.910
3) George Russell +31.328
4) Lando Norris +36.143
5) Max Verstappen +77.098
6) Fernando Alonso +85.468
7) Alex Albon +87.396
8) Franco Colapinto +89.541
9) Lewis Hamilton +92.401
10) Oliver Bearman +93.127
11) Nico Hulkenberg +93.465
12) Pierre Gasly +117.189
13) Daniel Ricciardo +146.907
14) Zhou Guanyu +148.841
15) Esteban Ocon +1Lap
16) Valtteri Bottas
17) Sergio Perez
18) Carlos Sainz
DNF - Lance Stroll
DNF - Yuki Tsunoda

McLaren's Oscar Piastri takes his second race victory of the season, he said afterwards: “I tried at the start of the race to get in front and once I dropped out of DRS I didn’t have the race. After we stop I saw we were pretty close again, I felt like we had a little bit of extra grip and I had to go for it because knew that if I didn’t get past at the start of the stint that I was never going to get past.

“I went for a pretty big lunge and managed to pull it off and hang on for dear life for the next 35 laps. The last couple of laps when 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. I think that definitely goes down as one of my better races of my career.”

On McLaren now leading the constructors’ championship, he added: “Considering where we started when I joined the team last year, we were literally last, and now we are leading the world championship. It’s full credit to the team and for the turnaround we’ve managed to have, first in terms of improving the car but also helping me improve as well.

"Results like this definitely weren’t possible 12 months ago for myself so it’s a massive team effort and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”

Anny Wooldridge
Writer at F1 Journal

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