Baku, Azerbaijan – It was heartbreak in Baku for Sergio Pérez who was minutes away from claiming his first podium finish since China before a collision with Spaniard Carlos Sainz took them both out of the race.
As the lights went out, pole-sitter and Ferrari driver Leclerc got away well ahead of McLaren’s Piastri. However, it was the Bulls who made the best start.
On the run into turn one Checo drew level with Sainz, lighting up his front left, before he slipped down the inside and made his way past the Spaniard on the approach to turn two to take third place. Behind him, Max also reacted well to the lights and he profited in turn two, muscling past Mercedes’ George Russell to take fifth place.
Leclerc held onto his lead, eventually pushing himself out of DRS range to Piastri. By lap 11, he had built a 3-second gap to the Australian with Checo following closely behind. Max, meanwhile, was reporting that he had “no bite from the car” and on lap 11 found himself eight seconds off fourth-placed Sainz.
On lap 13, the World Champion came into the pits and took on a set of hard tyres. He rejoined in P10 behind VCARB’s Ricciardo. Checo followed his team-mate to the pit lane on the following lap, also taking on a set of hards.
Piastri stayed out on track so Checo began to push to try and capitalise on the undercut. However, he was running behind the McLaren of Lando Norris, so going through the Old Town section of the circuit the Briton held up Checo to allow his teammate to stay ahead of Checo.
Leclerc made a later stop compared to other front runners. This allowed Piastri to close in and at the start of lap 20, the Australian used the massive DRS effect of the pit straight to close in and power past the Ferrari into Turn 1 to steal the lead. Checo, meanwhile, was very much in touch and Checo was soon right on Leclerc’s gearbox.
Max, meanwhile, had closed up to Sainz and on lap 22 the champion was within DRS range of the Spaniard. The pair quickly came up on the slower Norris and Albon and on lap 23 Sainz made his way past the McLaren to buy a small gap back to Max who suddenly found himself struggling with braking and stuck behind a stubbornly defensive title rival.
Over the following 10 laps, Norris, aided by DRS from Albon to stay ahead of a frustrated Max. The Champion was running 24 seconds off the lead and struggling for pace after reporting that he had no rear grip. He was soon ambushed by Russell.
At the front, on lap 33 Leclerc mounted his most serious attack since surrendering the lead. The Ferrari driver closed up under DRS on the pit straight forcing Piastri to defend the inside line. The McLaren driver held the lead but the battle allowed Checo to close in and join the battle as the race edged towards two-thirds distance.
Norris finally made his sole stop on lap 38 and he rejoined in seventh place, 15 seconds behind Max. The McLaren driver, with fresh Medium tyres on board, quickly began to post fastest race laps, upwards of 1.5s per lap faster than Max who was unhappy with his tyres, brakes and balance. Norris would eventually catch the troubled Dutchman.
The final third of the race developed into a cat and mouse battle at the front, with Leclerc pushing to provoke a mistake from Piastri, the Australian defending, and with Checo seeking to profit from the battle.
When Leclerc suddenly began to slip and slide on worn tyres, Checo saw his chance. He closed in and after almost getting by on lap 49 looked to have more than enough pace to get past over the following two laps. Sainz, however, had other ideas. Joining the podium fight, the Ferrari tried an attack of his own – with disastrous consequences.
With both drivers in the wall, the race was closed out under a Virtual Safety Car. Piastri stretched out to take his second career win ahead of Leclerc, while Russell inherited third place ahead of Norris and with Max in fifth place.
With nothing to show for a fantastic drive and so close to a podium finish, Sergio Pérez, said “I feel super sad for the Team, but the positive thing is the pace is back, the changes to the car seem to have put us back in contention.”
His teammate, Max Verstappen, after finishing fifth, said “We ultimately still had some issues with changes that we made before qualifying and we just paid the price today.”
Oracle Red Bull Racing are off to Singapore Grand Prix on the 22nd of September.