The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was another thriller. Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez all fought valiantly for the win, with the three cars seldom separated by more than a second. Whilst the Australian crossed the line in first, all three drivers had a genuine shot at victory if the race had played out slightly differently. And for one of the drivers, not getting into the race lead kickstarted a chain of events that led to his retirement. And in all this, Verstappen was nowhere, being thoroughly outclassed by his teammate for the first time in forever.

On Saturday during qualifying, Charles Leclerc was mighty. He kept his foot on the throttle in corners where every other driver lifted and snatched pole by over three tenths of a second, a mighty gap when the top teams are so close. And Charles initially looked to have the race in the bag during the first stint, as he briskly pulled a six second gap to Oscar Piastri in second. In the first stint of the race, I was incredibly excited to see Charles take a dominant win and thought the fight for second would prove more dramatic than the fight for fist. The aforementioned fight for second was ignited on lap thirteen, as Red Bull brought in Sergio Perez in an attempt to undercut Piastri.

Whilst the undercut was powerful in Baku McLaren were able to efficiently play the team game to survive. After pitting, Perez found himself behind Lando Norris, who was running a long stint on the hard tyres after starting the race in fifteenth. At this point, McLaren requested that Lando slow down Perez in the tight and twisty middle sector, where it is impossible to overtake. Lando responded to this request and held Perez up, which when combined with Piastri’s pit stop being about half a second faster than Perez’s, meant that when Piastri came out of his pit box two laps after Perez, he retained second place. Given the subsequent events of the race and Red Bull’s superior top speed, it appears likely that if Perez had got past Piastri, he would have won the race. Whilst it was not to be for Perez on this occasion, it is worth praising his performance in Baku. Sergio has come under rightful criticism during his time at Red Bull for being consistently slower than Max and came very close earlier this season to being fired. Yet, in recent races he has begun to turn his season around, showing that there are circumstances where he can deliver a solid performance. Perez may have saved his seat for next season last weekend, an achievement I would make no effort to downplay.

After Leclerc pitted, his Ferrari proved to have issues with warming up the hard tyres. Whilst these issues were minor and the Ferrari still appeared to be the fastest car in the race, Oscar Piastri snatched his opportunity to take the lead, catching Leclerc napping to make a fantastic overtake on the inside of turn one. For the rest of the race, Leclerc harangued Oscar, but Piastri defended his lead perfectly, ensuring that Charles would never get the chance to take the inside line where it is easier to overtake. For both his overtaking and defending, Piastri deserves plaudits. He delivered an Oscar-worthy performance last weekend and has established himself as a top F1 driver. Oscar Piastri thoroughly deserved that win, even if I wish Leclerc had won it.

Whilst Charles tried his best to get past Piastri, the extent of time he spent pushing in dirty air had only one inevitable consequence. Thus, near the end of the race, Charles’ tyres began to fall off a cliff. Sergio Perez attempted to take advantage of this and looked to have a solid overtake lined up, but Charles was incredibly late to brake to ensure that Perez wouldn’t get past. This put Perez out of shape, allowing him to be overtaken by the fast-charging Carlos Sainz, who had slowly dragged his way into the battle for the podium places. Yet, as Perez attempted to come back on Sainz after turn two, Sainz failed to take of note of Perez and took the normal racing line. He promptly crashed into the side of Perez, taking them both out of the race and promoting George Russell into third. As Sainz made no erratic movements, the stewards deemed it to be a racing incident and did not penalize Carlos. Yet, even so, it showed an incredible lack of awareness by Carlos. Additionally, it made me feel awful for Sergio Perez. After his best weekend of the year, he had it all taken away from him on the penultimate lap. It was a real shame to see, and I really hope Sergio can bounce back in Singapore, another track that he has won at before.

In conclusion, it was another great race. The person I wanted to win didn’t and I felt so sorry for Sergio Perez, but still, it was full of great moments. A three-way fight for the win; Verstappen’s pace being non-existent; Norris charging from fifteenth to fourth; a double Williams points haul and even a lovely little tenth for Ollie Bearman. In reflection, a lot of good did happen in this race.