F1 | Piastri: “Endurance race, decisive as I passed Leclerc”

The race in Azerbaijan will be remembered for a long time, not so much for the action on the track, given that there was not a lot of overtaking, but for the tension that was created until the final laps, especially in the fight for the victory and the podium.

Exciting challenges, especially the one for the victory, which saw Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc fight for a long time until the gap opened up in the very last laps. After an initial part of the race in which the Monegasque had managed to repel the attacks of his McLaren rival, the Ferrari driver had been able to open up a safety margin, also thanks to the tyre problems of Piastri himself, who had perhaps pushed too much on the front, generating graining.

Taking advantage of the work of Lando Norris, who tried to slow down Sergio Perez in order to give McLaren the opportunity to keep Piastri out for as long as possible, the Woking team got the timing of their stop right, coming in one lap before the Ferrari. In that single lap, the Australian recovered much of the gap accumulated by Leclerc previously, so much so that, when the race leader also stopped, Piastri found himself with a gap of less than two seconds from Leclerc, but with Albon’s Williams to overtake.

“At the start of the race I tried to stay in front, but once I came out of DRS I didn’t have the pace. After the pit stop, I saw that we were very close again and I felt that we had a bit more grip,” said the Australian, underlining how after the pit stop he felt he could push on the tyre with extra grip compared to Leclerc, who had more difficulty in the early stages of the second stint.

“I had to try, because I knew that if I didn’t get past at the beginning of the stint, I would never get past. So I braked pretty hard, but I managed to get through and then I held out for the next 35 laps,” Piastri added, underlining how decisive that overtaking move was, because it allowed him not only to get ahead, but also to dictate the pace and avoid ending up in dirty air. The Australian was in fact able to manage, trying to best interpret the traction phases, so that Leclerc didn’t have the margin to attack him with the DRS, until in the final laps, suffering from the degradation of the rear, the Ferrari driver gave in, missing the train for the victory.

“The last two laps, once I got out of the DRS zone, were a bit more relaxed. But there is no such thing as a relaxed lap around here. So it was hard work, but no, I think this is definitely one of my best races of my career,” added Piastri who, with this win and Perez’s zero, allowed McLaren to clinch the constructors’ championship car.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo credit: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

An excellent way to celebrate such an important milestone, for which Piastri wanted to praise both the team for the progress made with the car and for how it has helped him grow on a personal level: “Considering the starting point, when I joined the team last year, we were literally last, and now we are leading the world championship”.

“So it’s a credit to the team that we’ve managed to make a difference in my 18 months here, firstly in terms of improving the car, but they’ve also helped me grow. Results like this were absolutely not possible for me 12 months ago, so it’s a huge team effort and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”