Australia’s Oscar Piastri took the lead on lap 20 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a daring lunge down the inside of race leader Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren got through the opening laps running second, as he qualified behind Ferrari pole-sitter Leclerc.
Both Red Bulls Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez gained a place each early while Verstappen’s lone title contender Lando Norris moved up from 15th to 12th by the end of the opening lap – though already found himself four seconds behind the top 10.
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Crucially Piastri remained in touch with Leclerc, getting DRS down the extremely long main straight at times, while opening up a more than two-second gap on third-placed Perez.
On lap 8, Piastri was told to switch to plan B, beginning to slip away from Leclerc with the gap up to 2.4 seconds.
The gap opened up by another second three laps later as Piastri appeared to be managing his rear tyre temperatures.
Verstappen and George Russell boxed earliest of the leaders, going from the mediums to the hards on lap 13, the Red Bull coming out in traffic after a slow stop, 10th behind Ricciardo.
Perez boxed on lap 14 and quickly threatened to undercut Piastri, but some brilliant team driving from Norris blocking the Red Bull through the tight castle section ensured the Aussie pitted two laps later but stayed ahead.
Leclerc pitted a lap later and used Albon, who hadn’t pitted, to make almost two seconds of space between himself and the undercut pair of Piastri and Perez.
Piastri passed Albon on the straight and then gleefully watched in his mirrors as the Williams continued to block the man in his former Red Bull seat, while closing to within a second of Leclerc up ahead.
On lap 20 Piastri lunged down the inside of Leclerc in the opening corner and took the lead of the race.
“I don’t think he expected it to come there,” Karun Chandhok said on Sky F1 commentary.
Leclerc complained he was being pushed harder than he wanted, with both he and Perez earning DRS in a tight three-horse race for the lead.
Meanwhile down the order Norris, who hadn’t pitted after starting on the hards, was hoping to hold up Sainz (5th) and Verstappen (7th).
Piastri showed great pace in the race lead, with McLaren believing he had overworked his medium tyres in the first stint, before pit reporter Ted Kravitz reported fears on lap 28 he had again overworked his tyres and would soon drop back.
Heading into lap 29, with Leclerc now only 0.6 seconds back heading into the back straight, it forced Piastri into a desperate defence which worked a treat but only just.
PREVIEW
Charles Leclerc set himself up to bid for another emotional Ferrari victory when he claimed his fourth consecutive pole position on the streets of Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
But Aussie Oscar Piastri is in prime position to capitalise on a track where leading from lights out hasn’t traditionally meant a win.
The Monegasque driver, who triumphed at Monaco in May and won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza two weeks ago, continued his supreme current form to beat McLaren’s Piastri by three-tenths of a second.
Despite three previous poles in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Leclerc has yet to taste victory in Azerbaijan.
In a dramatic qualifying session with title-chasing Lando Norris, in the second McLaren, eliminated in Q1 in 16th place, Leclerc clocked a best lap of one minute and 43.365 on his final run to take his career 26th pole.
Series leader and three-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who leads Norris by 62 points, qualified only sixth.
“It’s amazing to be on pole,” said Leclerc.
“The car felt really good and everything was great. It’s one of my favourite tracks. I really like it. It hasn’t been an easy weekend because of my crash in FP1.
“It didn’t make me lose confidence, as I knew that the pace was there, but you’ve got to be back up to speed.
“In Q3 and qualifying, it was all about trying to stay away from the walls and on the last lap I went for it a bit more – and the lap time came very nicely.”
His Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz was third in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez of Red Bull and Mercedes’ George Russell.
“Its the best we could hope for,” said Leclerc.
“The left side of the grid is a little bit less grippy, so first and third is where you want to start here and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win.
“It’s going to be a long race. In the past, we have been very strong in qualifying and struggled a bit in the race, but this year we have a stronger race car — so I hope we can finally make it tomorrow.
“Tyre management will be a big thing so we’ve got to do a good job again. We did a good job in Monza, but we have to re-set every race we do so this is another race with other issues.” Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz qualified third.
“We had a solid qualifying and we’re in a good position. I’ve never felt 100 per cent hooked up around here in my career and I tend to struggle on this track, but this is a good position. And my race pace seemed strong — so I think it is all to play for.”
Sergio Perez was a strong fourth for Red Bull on a track he enjoys, ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Verstappen.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes before being forced into a pit lane start, ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Argentine new boy Franco Colapinto who out-paced his more experienced Williams team-mate Alex Albon.
Meanwhile Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was disqualified for a fuel flow violation with the French driver relegated from 13th place to bottom of the grid for Sunday’s race.
Starting grid (after Gasly relegated, Hamilton and Ocon pit lane starts due to changes)
Front row Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari), Oscar Piastri (AUS/McLaren)
2nd row Carlos Sainz (ESP/Ferrari), Sergio Perez (MEX/Red Bull)
3rd row George Russell (GBR/Mercedes), Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull)
4th row Fernando Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin), Franco Colapinto (ARG/Williams)
5th row Alex Albon (THA/Williams), Oliver Bearman (GBR/Haas)
6th row Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/RB), Nico Hülkenberg (GER/Haas),
7th row Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin), Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/RB),
8th row Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren), Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Sauber),
9th row Zhou Guanyu (CHN/Sauber), Pierre Gasly (FRA/Alpine)
Pit lane Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine)
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