2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | 6 talking points

Piastri’s masterful pass wins the day

All the talk pre-weekend had been about McLaren’s “papaya rules” and how Oscar Piastri would finally have to give priority to title chasing team-mate Lando Norris. As it turned out, that became irrelevant in Baku thanks to Norris’s qualifying woe, leaving Piastri clear to fight for his second F1 win. And how he clinched it was another marker of just how special the 23-year-old Australian is proving to be.

Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari held the upper hand in the opening stages, but Piastri and McLaren played the first stops beautifully to close the gap, and the decisive moment came on lap 20 of 51. He looked an awful long way back, but as we saw in Monza, Piastri is audacious in wheel-to-wheel combat. The finely judged dive on the inside at Turn 1 was clean and perfectly executed – leaving Leclerc frustrated that he didn’t do more to defend his lead.

From there, Piastri then put up a defensive masterclass as Leclerc piled on the pressure to gain back his lost advantage. But whatever the Ferrari tried the McLaren had an answer for. What a drive from Piastri. Meanwhile, Leclerc was left to reflect on four consecutive pole positions in Baku, and not a single victory from any of them.

Sainz and Pérez collide

A two-time winner on the Baku streets, Sergio Pérez returned to form and headed Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in the race. The Mexican looked all set for a morale-raising podium having shadowed the battle for the lead, and challenged Leclerc for second place in the closing stages. As they began their penultimate lap, Checo’s move at Turn 1 came up short, which allowed the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. to capitalise and pounce on the corner’s exit. But Pérez fought back out of Turn 2 when the pair came together in a needless collision that left them both smacking the wall.

As always, there were two sides to the story. Sainz was pressuring Leclerc into Turn 2, which induced understeer through the left-hander and checked his momentum on the run to Turn 3. That allowed Pérez to edge up on his left-hand side. But Sainz was still clearly ahead as he started to edge left, and Pérez held his ground. The Red Bull had space to move left, but Pérez chose not to use it, and that ultimately cost both of them a high-scoring finish. The avoidable incident bumped George Russell up to an unexpected podium for Mercedes and changed the shape of the top 10 as the race finished under a Virtual Safety Car.

Norris salvage job pays off

Catching a yellow flag for a slow-moving Esteban Ocon at the end of Q1 ruined Norris’s weekend and left him monosyllabic in his fury on Saturday afternoon. What could he do from 15^th on the grid? The answer was a great deal. He carefully worked his way through the field on a long first stint, then crucially passed his title rival Max Verstappen on lap 49 – and then picked up the added bonus of two more positions when Sainz and Pérez collided. Fourth, and a gain of 11 places represented a decent return after the frustration of the Q1 qualifying exit, even if he was left ruing what might have been a win without that costly yellow flag.

Verstappen also gained from the crash, too, and finished fifth. The Dutchman has just one podium from the past five races – an incredible drop in form. But as he pointed out afterwards, his lead in the standings is still “decent,” now at 59 points with seven races to play. Norris’ hopes of snatching the crown remain a long shot without at least one Verstappen non-finish in the coming rounds.

McLaren on top in the constructors’ battle

The result was much more significant for the shape of the constructors’ championship. McLaren had closed to within eight points of Red Bull after Monza, and now after Baku it has hit the top of the standings – for the first time since the opening race of the hybrid era way back in 2014. The Pérez non-score means it’s a significant lead, too: McLaren holds a 20-point advantage over Red Bull, whose reign at the top of F1 has been broken after 55 races and 847 days. Verstappen labelled his RB20 “uncontrollable” on Baku’s streets, but is still expected to edge to his fourth consecutive title. The chances of Red Bull retaining the teams’ championship now looks a long shot, without a dramatic revival in form.

A double-score for Williams

The Pérez/Sainz clash had a happy knock-on for a number of teams and drivers down the order. Behind Verstappen, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin was bumped up to sixth for his best result since the Canadian Grand Prix. More notably, it also meant Williams duo Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto finished seventh and eighth as Williams claimed its first double-score since the US Grand Prix last year. That’s a much-needed boost for the team, especially after the embarrassment in qualifying of sending Albon out with an air blower still attached to his car’s airbox.

Colapinto’s performance also further justifies the decision to replace hapless Logan Sargeant mid-season. These were the first points for an Argentine F1 racer since Carlos Reutemann in 1982 and the haul lifts Williams above Alpine into eighth in the teams’ standings. Millions of dollars are at stake in that fight near the foot of the table, so it’s another we must keep an eye on through the autumn races.

Bearman scores for Haas

Pérez and Sainz also did a huge favour for Oliver Bearman. The 19-year-old joins Haas full-time in 2025, but was called up for Baku in place of Kevin Magnussen whose penalty points accumulation left him with a one-race ban. Bearman impressed in qualifying, then raced well to finish ahead of team-mate Nico Hülkenberg – and 11^th then became a points-scoring 10^th after the Red Bull/Ferrari incident, one spot behind Lewis Hamilton. That makes Bearman the first driver to score points in his first two grands prix for different teams, following his striking one-off for Ferrari in place of Sainz in Saudi Arabia early in the season. What a great start to life in F1 for the British teenager.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.