Oscar Piastri won an honorable victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prixhis second in the Formula 1 and in this World. He achieved this in a race that took a 360-degree turn at the end due to the accident that Carlos Sainz provoked with Czech Perez. After a fierce battle for third place, the Spaniard went too far in wanting to attack. Charles Leclerc (2nd) and bore the pilot’s stamp of Red Bull against a wall of the narrow circuit of Baku.
By a stroke of luck, added to his previous efforts, George Russell He climbed to the last place on the podium. Lando Norris He moved up to sixth position and finished fourth because of the incident and Max Verstappen He finished in fifth place, being the only Red Bull to score points in spectacular fashion. Fernando Alonso He finished sixth against all odds thanks to another spectacular performance and behind the Asturian Alex Albon (7th), Franco Colapinto (8th), Lewis Hamilton (9th) and Olivier Bearman (10th), who scored again in his second race in F1.
Sainz came out on the losing end of a clean start in which Perez overtook him. Alonso remains seventh and close to Russell’s car, overtaken by Verstappen. Meanwhile, Norris was heading towards the points zone in pursuit of his title rival. A clash between Yuki Tsunoda And Lance Walk It forced the Japanese out of the race with a broken sidepod and sent the Canadian into last place on the first lap when he pitted.
After the first stop, the only one in case of FerrariIt seemed clear that only Leclerc could lose the race. But Piastri appeared on lap 19 to show that the Monegasque was not at all comfortable at the front on the hard tyres and passed him on the main straight to take the lead. A lap later, Pérez appeared to form a DRS trio that Sainz hoped to join by breaking free from Albon and Norris, who had not yet stopped.
Norris beats Verstappen again
When he finally managed to do it, the barrier with the top three was nine seconds. The positive for the Madrilenian is that Norris, ally at a distance, kept Verstappen at bay in a battle different from those at the beginning and mid-World Cup and in which the McLaren He did not give an inch to his sworn enemy. Added to this was a brake problem that the Dutchman complained about.
Although the real duel was the one that took place on the front row, with Piastri and Leclerc separated by less than half a second and making excellent wheel management to extend their aspirations for victory until the last lap. The Monegasque’s first attack came on lap 29, but the papaya driver saw him coming and defended wonderfully to prevent the overtaking.
In the same scenario, four laps later, Leclerc returns to the charge, but Piastri says no again and Perez joins the fight again. The good news continues at McLaren, as Norris continues without stopping and Verstappen still fails to beat him. And not only that, but the Dutchman also lost his position to Russell on lap 34 after a fantastic overtaking by the Briton.
With 10 laps to go in Baku, there were two open fronts. What will happen in first position between Piastri and Leclerc and in sixth with Verstappen and Norris. The distance was very different, since the victory was a matter of tenths between Ferrari and McLaren, while behind Lando had to reduce 12 seconds to deal a new blow to the Red Bull.
Piastri wins in Baku and Perez and Sainz crash
Maximum excitement with four laps to go, Sainz then joining the fight in which he hoped to climb onto the podium. There were two laps left for Norris who, much more superior in terms of pace, beat Verstappen on lap 49. The victory was in the hands of Piastri, who did not fail and made Leclerc lose more than a second.
The Monegasque had to settle for second place and he resisted too much to Perez, who, in turn, was defending against Sainz before this formidable final. The Madrilenian overtook him and wanted to pursue Leclerc without looking at what was happening behind him and causing this brutal accident with Perez. This is how the test in Azerbaijan ended: with a yellow flag, a victory for Piastri and a major fiasco for Ferrari and Red Bull.
