Charles Leclerc once again took the pole in Baku, but once again, another driver took the win.
Oscar Piastri was able to score his second career Formula 1 victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday (Sept. 15). It didn’t come easy for the Aussie, however, as he had to overcome a very long fight with Leclerc to take the win.
Piastri took the lead outright on lap 20 into turn 1 on a dive-bomb pass on Leclerc. With both having taken their only pit stop of the race a few laps prior, Piastri then held off Leclerc for 26 straight laps.
“I tried at the start of the race to get in front,” Piastri said in the podium interviews, “but once I fell out of DRS, I just didn’t have the pace. After the stop, I saw we were pretty close again.
“I felt like we had a little extra grip. I had to go for it because if I didn’t get past at the start of the stint, I’d never get past. Went for a pretty big lunge, managed to pull it off, then hung on for dear life.”
Leclerc closed up multiple times to try and take the lead in Turn 1, but Piastri kept the inside and denied the Monegasque driver every single attempt. Finally, by lap 47, Piastri built up a three-second lead.
During the battle, Sergio Perez spent most of it right behind the two in third, but was unable to get past either driver. Carlos Sainz closed up in the waning laps to the top 3 and made his move on Perez on lap 50, taking third.
Out of turn 2, Perez and Sainz made major contact and wrecked into the inside wall. This ended the race under the virtual safety car, and neither car could continue on.
Leclerc finished second and George Russell ended up in the catbird seat to take third.
Lando Norris got up to 12th on the first lap after starting 15th. He moved up into the points on lap 8, and stayed out there through the remainder of the race.
Norris was able to use pit strategy to come out with 20 seconds’ worth of clean air out of his pit stop. He was able to then make up that gap to pass Max Verstappen for sixth with three laps to go and ensure he’d gain at least some ground in the driver’s championship.
Norris finished fourth. Verstappen pitted to take soft tires to try and go for the fastest lap, but was unable to due to the penultimate-lap accident, and finished fifth. Norris was able to gain three points on the Dutchman, lowering the gap to 59 points with seven races and three sprints remaining in the season.
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