Oscar Piastri passed Charles Leclerc for the lead on lap 20 and held off the Ferrari driver to win a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The race ended under a virtual safety car due to Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz’s dramatic late crash that had huge implications for the finishing order as well as the constructors standings. George Russell finished third, while Lando Norris drove from 15th to fourth as McLaren wrested the lead in the constructors standings.
“I tried at the start of the race to get in front but once I dropped out of DRS [range] I just didn’t have the pace,” Piastri said. “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.
“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.
“The last couple of laps, once [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. It definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career.”
Max Verstappen finished fifth, Fernando Alonso took sixth, and the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto came home seventh and eighth, respectively. Lewis Hamilton salvaged a ninth-place result after starting from the pit lane due to an engine change. Oliver Bearman, driving in place of Kevin Magnussen for Haas, grabbed the final points-paying position.
In the driver standings, Norris picked up three points on Verstappen, and now trails his friend and rival by 59 points, 313 to 254. Leclerc is third with 235 points, with Piastri lurking 13 points back.
In the constructor standings, McLaren’s 38-point haul (coupled with Red Bull’s 10 points) moved them ahead of Red Bull, 476 to 456. Ferrari is third with 425.
The Race
Leclerc screamed off the line to lead into Turn 1 while Perez jumped Sainz for third and Verstappen overtook Russell for fifth.
Norris, starting 15th, picked up two spots at the start and two more by lap 3. Lance Stroll suffered a puncture on the first lap, but luckily was able to make it to the pits without troubling anyone else.
Piastri kept Leclerc in DRS range through lap 4, setting a fastest lap on lap 2. Leclerc responded with a fastest lap of his own on lap 4 to keep the McLaren at bay.
Hamilton, who started from…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …