Charles Leclerc may have grabbed the
headlines on Saturday with a fourth pole position at Azerbaijan’s Baku Street
circuit, but the weekend emphatically belonged to Oscar Piastri.
The Australian driver started in
second and maintained the position as the lights went out. In fact, with both Leclerc
and Piastri on the medium compound tyre in the opening stint, it appeared that
the Ferrari driver had the pace to win the race. A lead of nearly six seconds
by the first round of pitstops wasn’t insurmountable but it didn’t bode well
for Piastri. But the switch to the hard compound brough the race back to the
Australian. An adacious move into turn 1 on lap 20. He didn’t disappear down
the road though as both Leclerc and Checo Perez kept in close attendance for
most of the race.
But Piastri displayed the absolute
best of his talents as he resisted the challenge from behind, lap after lap. It
meant that Leclerc had pushed too hard on his tyres and by the end of the race
nearly fell victim to Perez and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. As it were,
Perez and Sainz collided spectacularly on the penultimate lap bringing an end
to both their races. This allowed George Russell to sneak into third place.
Lando Norris started the race in
fifteenth after being caught out by yellow flags in qualifying. The McLaren
driver recovered to fourth and added a bonus point for the fastest lap of the
race. Max Verstappen endured a difficult weekend and was only able to bring his
out-of-sorts Red Bull home in fifth. Fernando Alonso was sixth for Aston Martin
while Williams celebrated a fine afternoon with Alex Albon in seventh and newly
minted F1 driver Franco Colapinto in eighth. Lewis Hamilton never looked on the
pace and ultimately finished ninth ahead of Oliver Bearman in tenth. Bearman
had been parachuted into the Haas for the weekend as Kevin Magnussen served a
one race ban for accumulating twelve penalty points.
Piastri’s first win in Hungary was
somewhat clouded by McLaren’s strategic faux pas. But there are no questions
around his performance in Baku. Let’s remember that Piastri has not even
completed two full seasons in F1. To deliver a drive like this, under huge
pressure from both Leclerc and Perez speaks volumes not only about his talent
but his potential. If this is the future of Formula 1 it is in very good
hands.
