Oscar Piastri clinched a sensational victory at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, ignoring a call from his race engineer, Tom Stallard, to be patient before pulling off a daring overtake on Charles Leclerc that sealed his second career win in Formula 1.
From the moment the lights went out, Piastri had Leclerc in his sights. He pushed hard in the opening laps, believing that getting clear air was the key to victory. However, his aggressive approach took its toll on his medium tires, leaving him 5.9 seconds behind Leclerc by the time he pitted on lap 15. Leclerc’s slow in-and-out laps gave the Australian a second chance, closing the gap after the Ferrari driver stopped a lap later.
Despite McLaren’s analysis showing that Piastri had overused his tires, Stallard urged the young driver to take a more measured approach in his second stint on hard tires, which needed to last 36 laps to the finish. But Piastri, sensing his opportunity slipping away, disregarded the advice. On lap 20, he made a high-risk move to snatch the lead from Leclerc — a move that ultimately won him the race.
“I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that in the first stint and completely cooked my tires,” Piastri admitted. “My engineer came on the radio and said, ‘Let’s not do that again,’ and I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside.”
Piastri’s bold decision paid off, but the battle was far from over. Leclerc stayed close behind, keeping the pressure on the McLaren driver for the remainder of the race. Piastri acknowledged that overtaking Leclerc was only part of the challenge — maintaining the lead was just as difficult.
“I knew that getting into the lead was going to be, let’s say, 40 percent of the job, but hanging on to it was going to be 60 percent,” he said. “Just trying to keep Charles behind was incredibly stressful. I couldn’t make a single mistake. I made a couple, but fortunately, they weren’t big enough to cost me.”
The victory capped a strong run of form for Piastri, who has been the highest-scoring driver over the past 11 races. His 25 points also helped McLaren leapfrog Red Bull to take the lead in the Constructors’ Championship for the first time in over a decade.
Reflecting on his win and McLaren’s recent success, Piastri said: “It’s not just down to me. We’ve had a car that’s been very quick and consistently quick in a lot of places. Today was one of those days where we weren’t necessarily the quickest, but we had a car that could put us in the fight. We had teamwork that put us in the fight, and it all managed to pay off.”
With this victory, Piastri has firmly established himself as a title contender and a force to be reckoned with in Formula 1.
