Piastri wins Azerbaijan Grand Prix as VSC chaos defines Baku finale

Race summary and result

Oscar Piastri crossed the line in 1:32:58.007 to take victory at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, starting from 2nd on the grid and finishing 10.910 seconds clear of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc. George Russell was a further 31.328 seconds back in 3rd, having started 5th, collecting 15 points for Mercedes.

Lando Norris, starting from 15th, came home 4th, crossing the line 36.143 seconds behind his team-mate to complete a McLaren one-two. Max Verstappen came home a distant 5th — more than a minute and seventeen seconds behind Piastri — from 6th on the grid.

Conditions were dry throughout, with air temperature peaking at 27.8°C and track temperature reaching 47.9°C. No rainfall was recorded.

Opening lap drama

The race began chaotically. A yellow flag in sector 7 appeared within the opening minute, quickly escalating to double yellows in sector 6 before further caution flags swept through sectors 7, 1 and 2. A separate yellow in sector 16 was recorded considerably later under lap 1 timing, indicating a prolonged clearance operation on different parts of the street circuit. Caution flags appeared across multiple sectors throughout the opening lap.

Mid-race incidents

The middle portion of the race produced its own disruptions. On lap 24, Verstappen had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 15. Twelve laps later, a yellow flag appeared in sector 2, and Esteban Ocon was subsequently penalised with the deletion of his lap 36 time for a track limits infringement at Turn 1.

Late-race VSC and the defining moment

The race's decisive sequence unfolded on lap 50, when double-yellow flags appeared in sector 4 and a yellow in sector 3 signalled trouble ahead. At the start of lap 51 — the final lap — race control deployed the Virtual Safety Car.

Also on lap 51, the stewards noted a collision at Turn 2 involving Sergio Pérez (car 11) and Carlos Sainz (car 55) and referred it for post-race investigation.

The chaos did not end there. Nico Hülkenberg and Verstappen were both separately cited for VSC infringements on lap 51 and referred to the stewards for post-race investigation. McLaren were themselves flagged for a pit-lane infringement on lap 51 and also referred for investigation, casting a shadow over what had otherwise been a dominant team performance.

Notable individual performances

Norris set the race's fastest lap on lap 42 — a 1:45.255 at an average of 205.318 kph — underscoring McLaren's outright pace advantage on the day.

Fernando Alonso ran to 6th from 7th on the grid for Aston Martin, while Alexander Albon brought Williams home 7th from 9th. Franco Colapinto finished 8th for Williams, having started from 8th on the grid, collecting four points for the constructor. Lewis Hamilton recovered from 19th on the grid to 9th, collecting two points. Oliver Bearman rounded out the points in 10th for Haas, having started from the same position.

Championship implications

After 17 rounds, Verstappen leads the drivers' championship on 313 points, but Norris has closed to 254 — a gap of 59 points — with Leclerc 3rd on 235. Piastri moves to 222 points in 4th, and the McLaren pair combined to score 38 points in Baku.

For Verstappen, Baku delivered a points loss in virtually every direction: a fifth-place finish, a deleted lap time, a VSC infringement referral to the stewards, and a team-mate — Pérez — embroiled in a separate investigation that already complicates Red Bull's weekend. Carlos Sainz, involved in the Turn 2 collision with Pérez, sits 5th in the drivers' standings on 184 points.

McLaren leave Azerbaijan with a one-two — built on Piastri's victory from 2nd on the grid and Norris's 4th-place finish from 15th — and a pending stewards' investigation into a pit-lane infringement still to resolve.

Race result

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Status	Pts
1	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:32:58.007	25
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+10.910	18
3	George Russell	Mercedes	+31.328	15
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	+36.143	13
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+1:17.098	10
6	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+1:25.468	8
7	Alexander Albon	Williams	+1:27.396	6
8	Franco Colapinto	Williams	+1:29.541	4
9	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+1:32.401	2
10	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	+1:33.127	1