McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia celebrates after he won the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sepember. 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
Oscar Piastri won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a late crash impacted the race and required it to finish behind a virtual safety car.
The win, combined with the fourth-place finish of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, gave the team a 20-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors standings. Red Bull had topped the standings for the past 55 races; McLaren last held the position in 2014.
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) started from the pole position but Piastri made his move at the start of lap 20, after the drivers’ lone pit stop, with a bold decision to pass Leclerc.
As the race progressed, and with Leclerc’s tires having given out in the final five laps, Leclerc did all he could to try to hold off Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari). And as Perez tried to pass Leclerc, Sainz got past Perez, and the two drivers got tangled and wound up touching the barrier, forcing them both out of the race.
“After the stop, I saw we were pretty close again and I felt like we had a little bit of extra grip and I had to go for it,” Piastri said.
“I knew that if I didn’t get past at the start of the stint, I was never going to get past, so I went for a pretty big lunge but managed to pull it off and then hang on for dear life for the next 35 laps. … It definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career.”
George Russell (Mercedes) was third and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) fifth in the race at Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Published – September 16, 2024 01:52 am IST
