What a race! Magnificent Oscar Piastri with that overtaking on Leclerc, the incident between Sainz and Perez, McLaren first in the WCC. Let’s go to analyze the race of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
RACE PACE ANALYSIS:
It was not only the fantastic overtaking, but also the management and consistency that determined the victory for the young Australian driver. Also in this race Oscar Piastri records the best pace, slightly slower there is Sainz with only 0.01 s/lap delay, but with the difference that the McLaren driver managed to finish the race.
It may not seem true considering these three years of Verstappen’s dominance and the great advantage of the Dutchman over the Mexican driver, but this time, Sergio Perez was faster than the three-time world champion by a good 0.33s/lap. But it was also faster than the Monegasque by 0.10 s/lap.
Leclerc had a very good stint 1, but he lost a little at the beginning of stint 2 and also at the end of this stint, but for the detailed analysis of the stint we will pass later.
We can’t help but highlight the consistency of Colapinto, who gets the eighth place with a very similar pace to the other rookie who ran this race in place of Magnussen, Oliver Bearman. The Argentine loses from his teammate only 0.03 s/lap. While the British academy driver Ferrari loses slightly more, 0.05 s/ lap than Hulkenberg, but finishing the race before him in 10th position, getting a point, which does not hurt Haas.
Now we move on to a more detailed analysis of certain stint:
STINT 1 ANALYSIS:
Leclerc was the best in the first stint, recording a pace of 108.42 s/lap, better than Perez and Piastri respectively 0.24 s/lap and 0.27 s/lap.
Charles had a good step in the first stint, managing his tyres better, in fact through radio communications his race engineer has repeatedly stressed his good management. Unlike Piastri, who in order to reach Leclerc and try a pass already in the first stint ruins the tyres after several blocks, which occurred especially in turn 1.
The front right of the Australian has been hit by a strong graining, at this point they decide to switch to plan B that apparently was for an undercut on Leclerc.
In the first stint, Perez was faster than the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, by 0.48 s/lap. The Mexican made a great start, overtaking Carlos Sainz and placing in third place, trying to stay close to the first two laps, but the gap increased every lap, opting for a pit stop at the end of lap 13, trying an under cut.
Red Bull with #1 had some grip problems and also complained about a high degradation of the rear tyres, saying that the front ones were in better condition. This created difficulties for Verstappen, losing grip and worse traction when exiting the corners.
The situation is no better for Lewis Hamilton that for the whole race he can’t find the right feeling with his car. The 7-time world champion after replacing the engine starts from the pit line with the medium compound. For several laps the Brit complained that the front tyres did not go in the ideal temperature window, this gave him various problems with the understeering. Understeer that goes to decrease when the tyres enter in optimal temperature, but towards the end of the stint there was a high degradation of the rear wheels, going against the oversteer coming out of the curve.
The first stint of Lando Norris was very good, starting from 15th position he managed to reach 7th position, it also provided important data to the team, to provide more information to the management of the tyres of Piastri. In general it suffered a little graining, but that was not as limiting as in the case of Verstappen.
STINT 2 ANALYSIS:
In the second stint, a McLaren also records the best pace, but this time it is not that of Oscar Piastri, but of his teammate, Lando Norris. The Briton of McLaren made it to the pit in lap 37, rides the medium compound, and from all of himself to recover Verstappen and overtake him in lap 49.
(Below you find a line plot that indicates the lap times of the two drivers, see the difference).
But among the hard tyres of the second stint to get the best pace was Carlos Sainz, with a pace of 107.56, 0.15s/ lap faster than Piastri, 0.22 compared to Perez and 0.44s/ lap compared to his teammate, Charles Leclerc.
The Monegasque in fact can not boast of having had a good step as in the first stint. There were several difficulties, starting from the undercut of Oscar Piastri: Ferrari decided to neutralize the undercut by trying to pit on the next lap, and it succeeds, in fact #16 leaves the pit lane in front of Albon, Piastri and Perez, but lost the advantage that he had initially, (we can see it from the gap chart offered by multiviewer).
It was a difficult start in particular, because his tyres had not yet reached the optimum temperature window, and he could not therefore immediately create an advantage from Red Bull n°11 and McLaren n°81. Then comes the fantastic overtaking of Oscar in turn 1 at lap 20.
And here begins a series of laps in which Leclerc tries in every way to get as close as possible to the Australian to try overtaking, but without success. The number 81 was able to bring greater speed in exit of the curves, especially that of T16, in fact the engineer of race of Charles advises him to anticipate the use of the ERS to optimize the traction and reduce the gap on the straight, But even with that, the Monegasque could not engage the overtaking.
Meanwhile, Perez moves a couple of seconds to manage his tyres and try an attack at the end of the race and his strategy worked, in fact Piastri suffered a greater graining on the front wheels, Causing a slight understeer that did not limit it much in the turn. While Leclerc suffered more of the graining on the rear wheels, which instead limited it very much in traction and also suffering from oversteer, losing a lot especially in the T7-T12 section.
Not only Sergio Perez arrives, but also the Spaniard from Ferrari, who meanwhile had managed the tyres better than his teammate. On lap 50 the Mexican tries to overtake, but Leclerc manages to defend his position, then a turn and then the #55 and #11 get in touch, losing control and withdrawing from the race.
For this incident, Russell manages to get the lowest step of the podium, with a pace faster than 0.56 s/ lap compared to Hamilton, who also in the second stint had several problems with his W15: The oversteer problem persists due to a greater deterioration of the rear wheels. However, he can only enter the points zone thanks to the incident involving the Mexican and the Spanish.
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