Piastri wins Azerbaijan Grand Prix in "stressful" afternoon

F1 Grand Prix, GP Azerbaijan, Baku Street Circuit

Australian McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has won his second career victory at Baku in what he dubbed was a very stressful afternoon. Pole sitter Charles Leclerc finished in second place while Mercedes' George Russell completed the podium.

Following some surprises during qualifying, Pierre Gasly was disqualified and Ghuanyu Zhou penalised for use of additional power unit elements. Both were relegated to the back of the grid. Then in the morning, Mercedes and Alpine announced that Hamilton and Ocon would start from the pitlane as they decided to also make power unit changes.

In the last lap the battle between the two Ferraris and Perez got settled as Perez first failed to make it past Leclerc in Turn 1. Leclerc defended hard which resulted in Sainz being able to take advantage and get ahead right after the corner. One turn further down the road Perez has the better line and the two came out of Turn 3 next to one another, although Sainz was clearly ahead. The two touched, sending them both into the wall and finishing their race, enabled Leclerc to take second place and promoting Russell to third.

The incident caused a yellow flag and ended under VSC conditions.

Norris finished in fourth after he managed to get past Verstappen 4 laps from the end. The Red Bull driver didn't really bother to defend and seemed powerless after a strong number of laps that also included fastest lap for the McLaren driver.

Despite a challenge from Leclerc for many laps, Piastri took a controlled victory, his second of his career. The Australian noted on the radio right after the race that "that was probably the most stressful afternoon of my life".

Baku didn't disappoint and sprung some surprises, but it's another big points haul for McLaren and more headache for Verstappen.