It might be the move of the entire Formula 1 season, and it could be the moment that propelled McLaren to a championship.
In Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc started from pole position ahead of Oscar Piastri and pulled away from the McLaren driver over the first portion of the race. While Leclerc’s SF-24 was dialed in on the medium compound, Piastri’s MCL38 fell off the pace as the driver dealt with higher tire degradation.
But all that changed after both drivers pitted for hard tires, and Piastri slowly reeled Leclerc in at the front of the field. At the tail end of Lap 19, Piastri got within striking distance, and then delivered this dramatic overtake that had Alex Jacques and Jolyon Palmer in the broadcast booth on F1TV looking for the right descriptions, before landing on “extraordinary” and “Ricciardo-esque:”
With the advantage of DRS, Piastri closes the gap to Leclerc in front of him to within 20 meters, while traveling over 330 kilometers per hour. It is then when Piastri cuts to the inside and grabs the inside racing line, but he needs to get the breaking absolutely right to make the overtake stick and avoid the wall at the left-handed Turn 1.
Somehow, some way, he makes this move stick. Leclerc tries to counter coming out of Turn 1, but Piastri closes the door on that move.
Here are a few more angles of this duel:
As the laps ticked down Leclerc had a few chances at retaking the lead, but Piastri closed the door every time. Eventually, Leclerc suffered some rear tire degradation of his own, and Piastri pulled away for his second Grand Prix victory.
That win, coupled with a tremendous recovery drive from Lando Norris — who started the day down in P15 but recovered to finish fourth along with capturing a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race — propelled McLaren to the top of the Constructors’ Championship standings, ahead of Red Bull.
While there is a lot of racing left in this season, and Red Bull believes they will have an improved RB20 starting with the United States Grand Prix next month, if McLaren goes on to win their first title since 1998, they might look back at this overtake as the moment that made it possible.
Perhaps deservedly so.
