It looked like it could be the continuation of Monza with Charles Leclerc dominating after starting from pole, but on lap 20 Oscar Piastri passed him and for the Ferrari driver there was no chance despite having tried repeatedly with the help of the DRS. With his rear tyres out, the Monegasque was overtaken by Sergio Perez and his teammate Carlos Sainz, only to then retake the lead in the general confusion, while the two contenders for the podium threw themselves out in a spectacular accident that inevitably froze the race.
So on the Baku track the Australian prevailed, ahead of the winner of the Italian GP and George Russell, who thus brought Mercedes back onto the podium in a not particularly favourable weekend.
An excellent fourth was Lando Norris, who was able to resist for 38 laps with the same set of hard tyres and thus move from fifteenth position to a much more interesting one in terms of the championship. Behind him was Fernando Alonso on Aston Martin, followed by a Max Verstappen who was definitely not having his day and by Alex Albon, who like the British McLaren driver was also able to make the hard tyres resist for about thirty laps.
Franco Colapinto, in his second race in F1 and good enough to finish eighth, was still surprising, as was Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pit lane due to the replacement of the power unit, and a very good Oliver Bearman, called by Haas in Azerbaijan to replace the disqualified Kevin Magnussen.
Worth noting is the retirement of Yuki Tusonda following a collision with Lance Stroll’s AMR24, which resulted in a huge hole in the side of his Racing Bulls, and the Canadian himself had to retire on lap 47 of the scheduled 51 due to a brake failure.
“I tried to take the lead, but I didn’t have the pace. After the pit stop I had more grip and I managed to do it. The last two laps were quite relaxing being out of the DRS zone. In my opinion it was one of my best races. From last place we are now fighting for the championship. Great effort from the team”, the winner said.
“With the mediums we were competitive, but with the hards it was tiring. Towards the end I even thought I would end up against the wall. Compliments to Oscar, the McLaren had less downforce and we were faster in the corners. At a certain point I tried to manage, but I was never as dangerous as I would have liked”, Charles commented hot off the mark.
“Surprised with the placing. Both my teammate and I had to change engines. Personally I also got a bad start, but with the harder compound I had a good pace. Driving full throttle at the end among the debris was not easy. Today we would have finished fifth, so we have to be realistic and admit that we have a lot to do. Let’s hope things go better in Singapore”, the clear analysis of the driver from King’s Lynn.
