2024 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Highlights

Oscar Piastri claimed victory at the end of a captivating 2024 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, narrowly beating Charles Leclerc to the chequered flag in a race-long, multi-car battle on the streets of Baku, as Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz dramatically crashed out late on.

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Piastri trailed pole-sitter Leclerc in the early stages of the 51-lap encounter but overhauled him shortly after the front-runners’ sole pit stop phase, with Perez – and eventually Sainz – joining them to make it a tense, four-way scrap for honours.

It was Piastri who ultimately came out on top, having expertly defended P1 on several occasions and gained a little bit of breathing space when Leclerc’s tyres faded in the closing laps, which pushed the Ferrari into the clutches of Perez and Sainz.

Drama ensued at the start of the penultimate lap when a failed pass on Leclerc led to Perez going wheel-to-wheel with Sainz – the pair spectacularly colliding on the run between Turns 2 and 3 and ending their afternoons in the concrete wall.

While the race ended under the Virtual Safety Car, there was no stopping the celebrations for McLaren and Piastri, who reflected on “the most stressful afternoon of my life” to bag a second Grand Prix win and help McLaren move to the top of the constructors’ championship.

Behind Piastri and Leclerc, a big winner from the clash between Perez and Sainz was George Russell, who took an unlikely podium in his Mercedes, while Lando Norris – on an alternative strategy from P15 – passed title rival Max Verstappen for P4 late in the race.

Fernando Alonso had a lonely afternoon in his Aston Martin, being promoted to sixth position with the drama ahead, while Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto built on Williams’s strong qualifying display to score a valuable haul of points for the Grove-based outfit.

Lewis Hamilton made it a points finish for Mercedes after his engine-related back-of-the-grid start, with the final reward of the day going to Haas stand-in Ollie Bearman, who impressively finished just ahead of experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg.

Pierre Gasly also rose from the rear of the field to take 12th, having been disqualified from qualifying, followed by RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon – the latter two recovering from power unit penalties.

Valtteri Bottas was the final finisher in the other Sauber, with Perez and Sainz ending the race on the sidelines alongside Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda, who clashed on the opening lap to leave the former with a puncture and the latter with car damage.

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:

A fortnight from the Italian Grand Prix, we have been treated to another thrilling race, with the outcome unclear from the first lap to the last. In Monza, we saw two different strategies in play, but today, almost everyone went with the same choice, but in no way did that detract from the on-track action, with a long three-way fight for the lead and several other battles throughout the race.

For this weekend and indeed the next one, we have gone with the same choice of dry compounds, which worked as expected, adapting very well to the track characteristics and conditions. Going into the event, the Soft was clearly going to be a qualifying tyre and the Hard the quickest for the race, with the Medium as an excellent compromise for the first part of the race. Between yesterday and today, we saw those predictions confirmed.

Even today, the track continued to rubber-in. It meant the lap times continued to improve, and degradation was limited. A few drivers experienced graining, especially in the first stint, but it did not significantly affect their performance. Running in traffic made life complicated regarding tyre management, but that is pretty much inevitable with the current aerodynamic configuration of these cars.

The day on the track:

The majority of drivers (14) opted to start on the Medium tyre. The Hard was chosen by Lando Norris (McLaren), Alexander Albon (Williams), Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls), Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) and both Alpine drivers (Ocon and Gasly). As expected, the one-stop strategy proved the most effective in terms of tyre management: only two drivers, Stroll and Verstappen, pitted twice, but in these cases, the stops were not for strategic reasons: The Canadian had a puncture as a result of a collision with Tsunoda on the opening lap and the Dutchman pitted again because he tried to set the race fastest lap in the closing stages, able to come down pit lane without losing position.

The longest stint of all was driven by Pierre Gasly (Alpine), who completed 50 laps on the Hard, only pitting on the penultimate lap to switch to Softs. As for the Medium, Alex Albon made the most use of it, doing a long 20-lap second stint on the C4.

2024 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Race Results

2024 Constructor Standings

Here are the team-by-team highlights:

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