BAKU (Azerbaijan), Sept 16 — Oscar Piastri delivered a cool performance on and off the track yesterday after his measured drive to win a tense and dramatic Azerbaijan Grand Prix lifted McLaren past Red Bull in the race for the constructors’ championship.
His win ended Red Bull’s more than two-year domination and confirmed that McLaren are now the team to beat having outscored all their rivals in the last seven races.
In a battle of attrition on the fast and technical 6km Baku street circuit, the 23-year-old Australian drove with control and aplomb to beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who started on pole for the fourth consecutive year.
“Well,” said the Australian with his trademark understatement on team radio. “That was the most stressful afternoon of my life. Thanks for the car! What a day that was! Thanks everyone.”
Piastri secured the lead on lap 20 when he dived down the inside at Turn One and finished 10.910 seconds clear of Leclerc, who was struggling on worn tyres in the closing laps.
George Russell, profiting from a late crash involving Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, finished third for Mercedes.
Perez had attempted to pass Leclerc before tangling with Sainz in a collision that left both drivers furious after hitting the wall on the penultimate lap.
The crash damaged both cars, ending their involvement and triggering a Virtual Safety Car finish to the race.
Piastri’s McLaren team-mate and title contender Lando Norris fought from 15th on the grid to finish fourth and beat three-time champion and series leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who finished fifth, extending the Dutchman’s run of races without a win to seven.
Piastri’s win lifted McLaren to 476 points ahead of Red Bull on 456 in the teams’ title race, while Norris (who claimed the fastest lap) trimmed Verstappen’s drivers’ lead by three points to 59 points.
Verstappen has 313 and Norris 254 with seven races and three sprint races remaining.
Red Bull had led the title race for 55 races.
“Considering where we started, when I joined the team last year, we were literally last and now we are leading the world championship,” said Piastri.
‘Hung on for dear life’
“It’s full credit to the team for the turnaround we’ve managed to have, first in terms of improving the car, but also helping me improve as well.
“Results like this definitely weren’t possible 12 months ago for myself so it’s a massive team effort and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
He said he had just not had enough pace to overtake Leclerc at the start, but grabbed his opportunity after pitting.
“I knew that if I didn’t get past him at the start of the stint, I was never going to get past. I went for a pretty big lunge, but I managed to pull it off and then hung on for dear life for the next 35 laps!
“The last couple of laps were a little more relaxing, but there is no such thing as a relaxing lap around here.
“It was hard work, but it goes down as one of the better races of my career.”
Leclerc, without a win in Baku despite four consecutive pole position starts, said he lost competitive pace on his hard tyres.
He added: “McLaren and Oscar have done an exceptional job and done better than us. A huge shame for Carlos on the last laps, hopefully everyone is ok and obviously not a great day for the team.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner made clear that given Verstappen’s winless run, team orders were in play with Perez committed to helping the Dutchman wihn a fourth straight title.
“Our rules of engagement are very clear. And what our focus is to the end of the year - we’ve got a driver who’s fighting for a world championship.
“It’s a team sport so it’s very clear that Checo’s job is to support Max to the end of the year.”
Fernando Alonso was sixth for Aston Martin ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon and Argentine new boy Franco Colapinto with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finishing ninth in the second Mercedes.
Ollie Bearman, standing in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen, was 10th for Haas ahead of his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. He became the first driver to score points on debut with two different teams. — AFP
