You thought the late lunge was coming from Charles Leclerc.
However it by no means got here.
Because the laps ticked down within the System 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the battle on the entrance was maybe the best of the season. A shocking lunge from Oscar Piastri at the beginning of Lap 20 noticed the McLaren driver seize the lead from Leclerc, who regarded as if he had one hand on the most important trophy following an incredible opening stint on a set of mediums. However with a set of hards bolted on Piastri’s MCL38, the automotive got here alive within the Australian driver’s palms, permitting for yet one more gorgeous overtake from Piastri in a season full of them.
However as these essential laps ticked down, Leclerc reeled Piastri in. There have been just a few laps the place, on the finish of one of many season’s longest straights Leclerc sniffed an overtake of Piastri, however he was not capable of end the transfer because the Australian driver received his elbows out and defended each meter he wanted on the observe.
Nonetheless, these laps of reeling Piastri in lastly took their toll. On Lap 48 of 51, Leclerc informed his crew that his rear tires have been gone. Piastri pulled away, and abruptly the Ferrari driver was compelled to defend from a charging “King of the Streets,” as Sergio Pérez was proper on his rear wing in a combat for second.
That combat led to catastrophe. On Lap 50 Pérez and Carlos Sainz Jr. got here collectively, crashing into one another and bringing out the digital security automotive. Pérez had gotten by Leclerc for a second, opening the door for Sainz to get into third. However as Pérez rejoined that combat for third with Sainz, the 2 “drifted into one another” as described by Jolyon Palmer on F1TV, ending the race for each of them.
“What occurred there? What occurred?” requested Sainz after the collision.
Behind these drivers, one other important battle performed out. After a catastrophic Saturday Lando Norris started the day exterior of the factors, however a protracted stint on the exhausting tires to start the day noticed Norris pull into the factors. As these laps ticked down he was reeling in Max Verstappen, his rival within the Drivers’ Championship. A lead of over ten seconds for Verstappen for P6, forward of Norris in P7, ticked down into the only digits because the laps peeled away.
By Lap 47, Norris was inside three seconds of Verstappen.
By Lap 49, he was forward of him, passing Verstappen for P6 within the race, and taking away two extra factors from the Pink Bull driver.
The crash on Lap 50 introduced out the digital security automotive, and the race ended underneath these situations, delivering a mess of surprises. A win for Piastri, a second-place end for Leclerc, a shock gorgeous fourth-place end for Norris — after beginning in fifteenth — and one thing we now have not seen since 2014:
McLaren atop the Constructors’ Championship standings.
Between Piastri’s victory and Norris’ gorgeous restoration drive — ending fourth and choosing up a bonus level for the quickest lap of the race — McLaren now sits within the championship lead by 20 factors over Pink Bull.
“I felt like we had a little bit of little further grip and I needed to go for it as a result of I knew that if I didn’t get previous at the beginning of the stint I used to be by no means going to get previous. Went for a fairly large lunge however managed to drag it off, and held on for expensive life for the subsequent 35 laps,” described Piastri to Guenther Steiner. “Was one of many higher races of my profession.”
The Australian driver then outlined what taking the lead within the championship means to him, and the crew.
“Contemplating the place we began after I joined the crew final yr, we have been actually final, and now we’re main the world championship. It’s a full credit score to the crew for the turnaround we’ve managed to have,” described Piastri. “It’s a large crew effort, and excited to see what the longer term holds.”
That future holds a surprising three-way combat for the Constructors’ Championship. With the grid heading to Singapore for subsequent weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren leads Pink Bull 476-456 within the Constructors’ Championship, with Ferrari simply behind them with 425 factors on the yr.
However after weeks full of McLaren going through questions on whether or not they may really get issues proper in that combat, and questions on crew orders, they put collectively the Sunday they wanted to depart Baku behind because the leaders within the championship. Sure, Piastri’s win was an enormous issue, however don’t low cost what Norris was capable of do on his facet of the storage. Not simply moving into the factors, however throughout a vital portion of the race, when Piastri was about to make his first pit cease, Norris was instructed to carry Pérez again a bit, to present Piastri and the crew extra of a spot between him and Pérez when he rejoined the race after his cease.
Norris executed that to perfection, permitting Piastri to rejoin the race forward of the Pink Bull driver. Reasonably than battling Pérez for second, Piastri was ready to chase down Leclerc for first.
Which he did ultimately.
We have no idea if McLaren will maintain onto that lead within the Constructors’ Championship, and in a season with so many twists and turns, extra actually appear on the horizon.
But when they do go on to safe a championship, this can be the day they have a look at the place it really got here collectively.
