Oscar Piastri won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with an exceptional drive for McLaren after an enormously tense battle to the flag with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in Baku.
Lando Norris made a superb and unlikely comeback drive to take fourth having started in 15th to keep his title hopes alive, finishing in front of title rival Max Verstappen who was fifth.
George Russell was fourth for Mercedes after a late crash between Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz eliminated both drivers. Lewis Hamilton was in ninth having started at the back of the grid with an engine penalty.
Leclerc had led the opening phase of the race from pole but in the wake of the only pit stops Piastri took the lead, after which the pair vied to the finish in an impossibly tense battle, both drivers at their best, threading the needle nose to tail for almost 30 laps on the streets of Baku.
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“That was probably the most stressful weekend of my life,” Piastri said. “What a race.” For Norris, starting from 15th after being caught out by a yellow flag in qualifying, the race was expected to be a case of damage limitation. Yet he and McLaren did an exceptional job to come through the field and beat his title rival.
The British driver took three points from the Dutchman and now trails by 59 points with seven meetings remaining, while McLaren have now taken the lead from Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
The victory makes it two in five races, alongside two second places for Piastri, who took his debut F1 win at Hungary in July. The potential use of team orders to favour Norris had dominated the build up to the weekend but with the British driver starting in 15th it was notable that Norris played a pivotal role in aiding Piastri when he held up Pérez to Piasrti’s advantage in the wake of the pit stops.
Leclerc held his lead on the short dash to turn one while Norris began his charge, making up two places from the start to 13th. Leclerc began to consolidate and by lap nine put the hammer down, delivering a series of fastest laps and opening up a two-second lead. Verstappen complained of a lap of grip on lap 11, the first of what were a series of issues he told the team he faced with the car.
Red Bull pitted him on lap 13 as Pérez went for the undercut a lap later with Piastri and Leclerc staying out. Pérez emerged behind Norris and McLaren with no little irony, given the team’s consideration of team orders in Norris’s favour earlier in the week, asked the British driver to hold up Pérez. Piastri came in on lap 16 and emerged just in front of the Mexican with Norris’s efforts proving decisive.
Leclerc pitted on lap 17 and Sainz a lap later and as the stops shook out Piastri had made the major gain. Leclerc had a slow stop and a slow out-lap, he had maintained his lead but by only just, under a second from the Australian and a lap later with DRS, Piastri plunged up the inside of turn one to take the lead on lap 20. Leclerc tried to come back but Piastri had enough to hold him off through turn two.
Piastri, Norris and Pérez remained line astern at the halfway point, only a second between them but as the tyres came to Leclerc he was able to attack, the pair vied into turn one on lap 29 as Piastri just held the place. The two drivers were pushing one another hard with nothing in it and Piastri repeatedly had to defend into one.
On lap 33, the pair went wheel to wheel once more through one and two, Leclerc ducking across the track to try to find a way through but without quite enough to put his nose ahead as Piastri defended with great skill.
There remained nothing in it for the front two as McLaren finally pitted Norris on lap 38 and he emerged in seventh, 15 seconds behind Verstappen in sixth. The team believed he could catch Verstappen on fresh rubber, although it was a big ask with 13 laps left.
Nose to tail Piastri and Leclerc were locked in their fight for lap after lap, turns one and two their arena each time but where Piastri executed perfectly every time to hold the lead, despite intense pressure from the Monegasque driver.
Norris was within nine seconds of Verstappen with eight laps remaining and pushing hard by lap 49 he swept past the Dutchman for a remarkable and unlikely return.
At the front, try as he might, there was no way through for Leclerc, whose efforts had punished his tyres. Pérez came at him and as the pair vied on the penultimate lap Sainz slipped past the Mexican and he and Pérez hit one another on the back straight, with both cars in the wall but the drivers unhurt and the virtual safety car was deployed, under which Piastri took a deserved win.
Fernando Alonso was sixth for Aston Martin, Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto seventh and eighth for Williams, with Oliver Bearman 10th for Haas. – Guardian
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