The Baku City Circuit kicks off a street circuit doubleheader. The circuit, known for its boom-or-bust races with long straights mixed with the tight Castle section, has seen some thoroughly entertaining races since it joined the calendar in 2016.
This year saw a tense fight out front, with four cars from three teams all having a shot of heading for the podium’s top step. Find out who prevailed in the report cards from round 17:
Top of the class:
Oscar Piastri – Qualifying: 2nd | Race: 1st
The Aussie truly stuck a middle finger to the Papaya rules as he converted McLaren’s pace in both qualifying and the race to take his second victory of the season.
Missing out on pole, Oscar had some early struggles on the first stint to fall back from Charles Leclerc, but the second stint was much stronger. Oscar carved into an eight-second deficit in the space of five laps to cruise up to the back of the Ferrari.
A send down the inside of turn 1 on lap 20 saw Oscar take the lead and then set in with a 25-lap battle to ensure he held on to P1, repelling numerous attempts from Leclerc to retake the lead.
Out in front, Oscar was able to conserve some tyres. As Charles dropped back out of DRS range, Piastri cruised home with the aid of a VSC ending to taste the champagne on a much happier note than his debut victory in Budapest.
The result means Piastri sits just 13 points off Charles and just 32 behind teammate Lando Norris. I’d argue a late charge for the Driver’s Championship is a bit of a stretch, but outscoring Max by the same margin he did in Baku makes this possible.
Williams:
Alexander Albon – Qualifying: 9th (promoted from 10th) | Race: 7th
Franco Colapinto – Qualifying: 8th (promoted from 9th) | Race: 8th
The team’s first double-points score since Austin 2023, a starring second race for new driver Franco Colapinto and moving up to P7 in the Constructor’s standings. You couldn’t ask for much more for Williams.
Both Albon and Colapinto comfortably made it to Q3, with the only error being the garage crew leaving the fan on Alex’s airbox meaning he couldn’t do a final run in Q3. This meant that Franco would be the lead Williams heading into the race.
Starting on the hard tyres, Alex ran long and was even amongst the podium places and was holding strong against McLaren’s recovering Lando Norris. Opting to pit earlier, he came out on the fringes of the top 10 and was in P9 on the tail of Alonso before the crash neutralised the race. P7 doubled his points tally for the season and saw Albon move to P13 in the standings.
Franco had a strong first stint, faded towards the end of the second, which was to be expected in his second race. Running P11, he was holding Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton well before moving up three spots after the incident and damage to Hülkenberg. Taking home P8 and four points, which already bettered what Logan Sargeant was able to achieve before being replaced by the Argentine.
Oliver Bearman – Qualifying: 10th (promoted from 11th) | Race: 10th
Haas’ 2025 recruit got his seat a bit earlier than expected as a substitute appearance for Kevin Magnussen, who had to sit this round out due to being banned for picking up too many penalty points.
If there was a track to make a sub appearance, Baku is arguably one of the toughest, but Ollie had already negotiated the Saudi Arabia round in a Ferrari. Baku won both races in F2 last season, so also adding in being able to run in all FP sessions, he should be up for the challenge.
The Brit performed well, matching his Saudi qualifying position in a Haas and out-qualifying arguably one of the strongest drivers in qualifying this season in teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
Ollie was hovering around the points in Sunday’s race and got to enjoy a battle with none other than Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the race. With the late race crash taking out two drivers and causing damage to his teammate, Ollie weaved through to knick the final point. Bearman became the first driver in F1 history to score points in their first two races with different teams.
Honourable mention goes to Charles Leclerc, the Monza winner, who looked in fine form to take his fourth consecutive pole at Baku with a near-three-tenth margin. He was favourite for victory with an eight-second lead heading into the second stint, but Oscar came roaring back on the hard tyres to head the field.
Leclerc fought for the vast majority of the race to retake P1 but couldn’t make it past, and his tyres dropped off with three laps to go. Losing the DRS advantage, he repelled the advances of Sergio Pérez to finish P2.
The Struggle Bus:
Red Bull:
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 6th | Race: 5th
Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 4th | Race: DNF
The slippery slide down the grid for the seemingly indestructible Red Bull team is certainly one for the history books. Things got even worse in Baku, as they took away just 10 points and lost their grip on the Constructor’s Title for the first time since the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
Max had arguably his worst outing of the season, finally beaten in qualifying by Sergio, he was on track for P7 before his teammate was involved in a hefty shunt. At the time, he was 17 seconds off the podium and fell behind Mercedes’ George Russell and the recovering Lando Norris in the second stint.
For the first time in a while, Sergio was actually having a strong weekend, running within touching distance of the race lead. It all came crashing down on lap 49 as he and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz collided on the run between turn 2 and 3, hitting the outside wall and losing hopes of some well-needed points.
At least it was damage limitation for Max as he only dropped 3 points in the Driver’s Standings and still holds a healthy 59-point lead heading into the final 7 races. Whilst there is now a 20-point deficit to McLaren to make up for the Constructors’ Championship.
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 7th (started pit lane) | Race: 9th
The drop in performance between Free Practice and Qualifying has been the tale of Lewis’ season, Baku was probably the biggest demonstration of that. Having been in the top 3 in both FP1 & FP2, Lewis was four-tenths off teammate Russell and nearly a second off pole.
Opting to start from the pit lane by replacing engine components, Lewis had his work cut out. Whilst he did make progress up the grid, he was running down in P12, struggling to get past the Haas of Ollie Bearman and the Williams duo. Hamilton only scored points as a result of the late crash between Sainz and Pérez, whilst George had a much stronger run to inherit a podium place.
Lance Stroll – Qualifying: 13th (promoted from 15th) | Race: DNF
The Canadian hasn’t scored points since Budapest before the summer break, and he ended any hopes of that with a clumsy lap 1 clash with VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Lance attempted a move up the inside of turn 4, but the door closed with Yuki turning into the right-hander, resulting in side pod damage for the Japanese driver. Whilst there was no penalty, both drivers retired from the race.
Whilst Stroll also struggled in Q2, his teammate once again was best of the midfield, with Alonso taking home P6 in the race to further increase the gap between the two.
Dishonourable mention goes to Nico Hülkenberg, a costly error in running over debris in the aftermath of the Sainz and Pérez collision cost the German 4 points as front wing damage dropped him from 8th to 11th. That and being beaten in qualifying by super-sub Ollie Bearman it was not a great weekend for the German.
Up next for the paddock is a quick hop across to another street track, Singapore. The hot and humid conditions along with the fight for both titles sets up some thrilling action on the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Can Ferrari bounce back at one of their best circuits, or will McLaren’s momentum seal them another victory?
Lights out at 1 pm UK time on Sunday 22nd September for round 18 of the 2024 season.
