A Champion Performance for Oscar Piastres. The young Australian driver triumphed in the Baku GP after a very close battle with Charles Leclerc. McLaren is now first in the constructors' championship, distancing Red Bull after a rather complicated weekend, with Perez having to retire after a contact with Sainz and Verstappen who did not go beyond fifth position. George Russell took advantage of the collision between Perez and Sainz on the penultimate lap, and was able to cross the finish line in third position.
Baku GP start: Leclerc remains first, Perez attacks Sainz
The lights went out at 13pm Italian time, with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari getting off to a good start from the pit stop before purchasing, position, also taking advantage of a less than brilliant start by the McLaren by Oscar Piastri. Carlos Sainz was unable to take advantage of this from third place, instead letting Sergio Perez's Red Bull pass him at turn 2. The battle at the back immediately became tight, with Lando Norris, who started 15th, finding himself already in 12th place behind Tsunoda, who resisted the English driver until the second turn of the third lap, then letting Hulkenberg pass him as well. The Japanese driver found some damage on his side belly pan, the fault of Stroll, who was excessively aggressive at turn four. In the top ten, Colapinto maintained eighth place ahead of Albon. Bearman also got off to a good start, gaining 10th place in the Haas.
After Zandvoort and Monza it's still Piastri against Leclerc
Chaotic race on the Baku circuit. Piastri immediately threatened Leclerc in the DRS zone, but after the sixth lap the Australian began to slow down, remaining in limbo between the Ferrari number 16 and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Lando Norris continued his climb, overtaking Bearman's Haas on the eighth lap, with the latter also having to surrender to Nico Hulkenberg. Lewis Hamilton's recovery was more complicated, starting from the pits, and on the 11th lap he was still forced into 14th position, with Colapinto behind him. The Argentinean abandoned eighth position to make his first pit stop, fitting hard tyres. He was followed on the following lap by Fernando Alonso. The waltz of pit stops thus began. In fact, Max Verstappen and Hamilton also stopped on the 12th lap, both fitting hard compounds and returning in tenth and eighteenth position respectively.
In the meantime, Perez also pitted and as soon as he put his hard tyres back on the track he demonstrated a remarkable race pace. His becoming forced Piastri to pit, saving the position on the Mexican by a few thousandths, who seemed reinvigorated between the walls of Baku. Perez's speed also worried Leclerc, who entered the pit lane on lap 17, managing to exit ahead of his pursuers and behind only Carlos Sainz, who maintained the lead of the race until the following lap, when he also had to change tyres. Leclerc's special ally was Alex Albon, who placed himself between the Monegasque and the cars of Piastri and Perez. Like the Williams driver, Lando Norris, who started on white tyres, was busy extending his stint in the hope of a safety car.
Lap 20 of 51: Piastri passes Charles Leclerc
The victory of the Baku GP is all a game between Leclerc, Piastri and, unexpectedly, Sergio Perez. After the Pit-Stop, the Ferrari driver tries a calm introduction of the hard tyre, but Oscar Piastri does not share the same opinion, having slipped past Leclerc on lap 20 with a big braking at the end of the main straight. The situation we have seen in the last GPs has thus reversed, with the Monegasque stamped on the back of Oscar Piastri. In this phase of the race, the pace of the first three has been truly intense, with the drivers putting tyre management in the background. Nine seconds from the first three is Carlos Sainz, followed again by Albon and Norris. Behind the English driver is Max Verstappen, who during the 24th lap tried several times to overtake the number 4 McLaren.
Last fifteen laps: the victory is in the hands of Piastri, Leclerc and Perez
The battle between Piastri, Leclerc and Perez got even more heated, with Perez managing to get within a second of the Ferrari. McLaren, however, showed significant speed on the straight, with Piastri continuing to push hard on the white tyres, aware of how fast his car can be on more degraded tyres. Proof of this was the performance of Lando Norris, who only made his first stop on lap 38, fitting the medium tyres and exiting the track fifteen seconds behind Max Verstappen in seventh place. In the meantime, however, Carlos Sainz, who stopped later than the top three and was able to introduce the tyre on the track more calmly and with clean air, began to gain on the leading trio.
In fact, on lap 44 Carlos Sainz arrived two seconds behind Sergio Perez's Red Bull, who with a few laps to go seemed to have broken away from the pair of Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc. However, the latter began to struggle with the rear tyres, especially in the castle area, the most driven section of the track. Despite everything, Leclerc did not give up, continuing to look for gaps between turns 1 and 3. Piastri's defence was masterful in this part of the race, managing to put just enough space between himself and the Monegasque to not lose first place.
Race End: Oscar Piastri Triumphs, Accident Between Sainz and Perez
The turning point of the race, however, came on the penultimate lap. Perez attacked Leclerc with all his strength at the braking point of the straight. Leclerc, however, extended the braking as only he knows how, maintaining second place. Carlos Sainz took advantage of the duel between the two, passing Perez and trying to take second place from his teammate. In an attempt to overtake Leclerc, Sainz made himself vulnerable to a comeback from Sergio Perez to regain the position. On the straight between turns two and three, however, the Mexican Red Bull driver hooked Carlos Sainz's Ferrari with his right front tyre, crashing into the wall and forcing both drivers to retire.
Oscar Piastri thus crossed the finish line under the Virtual Safety Car, achieving his second career victory in the best possible way. Charles Leclerc was second, with George Russell who took advantage of the crash between Sainz and Perez on the podium. Lando Norris was fourth, having managed to maximize the result after a disastrous qualifying session. Also thanks to his points, McLaren became the leader of the constructors' standings. A colorless race for Max Verstappen, who finished in fifth place. Next up was Fernando Alonso, who crossed the finish line ahead of the two Williams of Alex Albon and a great Franco Colapinto, who scored his first points in F1. Bearman also performed well, managing to score a championship point by occupying tenth place behind Lewis Hamilton, who instead finished ninth. The only two retirees in the race were Tsunoda and Stroll.
