Track Torque: Piastri bags an Oscar in Baku
The season has the potential to have one of the most exciting finishes in a long time.
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) drove a masterful race to beat Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) to the chequered flag by more than 10 seconds.
In doing so, he won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. The result also saw McLaren overtake Red Bull in the team champs.
The race had, however, been much closer than this for a long time.
Leclerc comfortably led the race from the start until his hard tyres went off, and he could not keep up the pace.
Piastri kept the pressure on until he took the lead, which he was never to surrender, despite several attempts by Leclerc to take it back.
Unfortunately, there was a serious mishap between Sergio Peres (Red Bull) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), who came together in a very tricky overtaking manoeuvre, which took both cars out.
They had been in third and fourth places, respectively.
The accident, therefore, allowed George Russell (Mercedes) through to third spot on the podium, 31 seconds behind the leader.
Lando Norris (McLaren) fought his way through to a very good fourth position after driving from almost the back of the grid.
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was out of sorts and had a very difficult race, eventually settling for fifth place, only just ahead of Fernando Alonzo (Aston Martin) in sixth.
From then on, in close formation and all within a couple of seconds of each other, followed Alex Albon (Williams), new man Franco Colapinto (Williams), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Oliver Bearman (Haas).
The race turned out to be difficult for most drivers, with tyre wear as the main challenge.
It resulted in an unusually mixed order for the finishes around this extremely challenging track.
Red Bull no longer have a clear advantage over the other cars, and competition is close, indeed.
The Grand Prix circus now moves across to Singapore on September 22 for another ‘through the city and round the houses’ race.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to say whose turn it will be to win next time.
The teams’ champs is extremely close as well, with Ferrari not out of it by any means.
The season is nearing the three-quarter mark, with 17 races complete and seven to go.
We could be in for a thrilling end to the season in Abu Dhabi on December 8.
DRIVERS
1 Max Verstappen 313 pts
2 Lando Norris 254 pts
3 Charles Leclerc 235 pts
4 Oscar Piastri 222 pts
5 Carlos Sainz 184 pts
6 Lewis Hamilton 166 pts
7 George Russell 143pts
8 Sergio Perez 143 pts
9 Fernando Alonso 58 pts
10 Lance Stroll 24 pts
11 Nico Hulkenberg 22 pts
12 Yuki Tsunoda 22 pts
13 Alexander Albon 12 pts
14 Daniel Ricciardo 12 pts
15 Pierre Gasly 8 pts
TEAM
1 McLaren 476 pts
2 Red Bull 456 pts
3 Ferrari 425 pts
4 Mercedes 309 pts
5 Aston Martin 82 pts
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