2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Race 17 of 24 in the 2024 Formula One World Championship
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	Layout of the Baku City Circuit
Race details
Date	15 September 2024
Official name	Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024
Location	Baku City Circuit; Baku, Azerbaijan
Course	Street circuit
Course length	6.003 km (3.730 miles)
Distance	51 laps, 306.049 km (190.170 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Charles Leclerc;
Time	1:41.365
Fastest lap
Driver	Lando Norris
Time	1:45.255 on lap 42
Podium
First	Oscar Piastri;
Second	Charles Leclerc;
Third	George Russell;
	Lap leaders ;

The 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024) was a Formula One motor race held on 15 September 2024 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was the seventeenth round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari took pole position for the event for the fourth year in a row, but lost out to Oscar Piastri of McLaren for the win and finished second, as Piastri took his second win in Formula One. George Russell inherited the final podium slot after Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. and Red Bull Racing's Sergio Pérez both crashed out on the penultimate lap while fighting for third and took themselves out of the race. Lando Norris recovered from a fifteenth-place start to finish fourth and take the fastest lap, one position over championship rival Max Verstappen.

This resulted in McLaren taking the lead in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Red Bull Racing, the first time they had led the Constructors' Championship since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. Franco Colapinto of Williams became the first Argentine driver to score a point since Carlos Reutemann at the 1982 South African Grand Prix.

Background

The event was held at the Baku City Circuit in Baku for the eighth time in the circuit's history, having previously held one edition of the European Grand Prix in 2016, across the weekend of 13–15 September.^[2] Including the aforementioned European Grand Prix, which was held in June, this was the first Azerbaijan Grand Prix to be run in September, taking the place of the Japanese Grand Prix which moved to April from its traditional schedule between September and November; previous editions of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ran during the first half of the season, between April and June. The move was part of Formula One's regionalisation efforts, scheduling the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as the first round after the European races.^[3]^[4] The Grand Prix was the seventeenth round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship and the seventh running of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.^[5]

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship with 303 points, 62 points ahead of Lando Norris in second, and 86 ahead of Charles Leclerc in third. Red Bull Racing, with 446 points, led the Constructors' Championship from McLaren and Ferrari, who are second and third with 438 and 407 points, respectively.^[6]

Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with two exceptions:^[7] Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams from the preceding Italian Grand Prix onwards,^[8] while Kevin Magnussen of Haas was given a one-race ban at the previous round, having caused a collision that put him over the limit of twelve penalty points within twelve months.^[9] Magnussen was replaced by reserve driver Oliver Bearman, who had last competed at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier in the season when he was substituted in for Ferrari.^[10]

Tyre choices

Sole tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (the three softest in their range) designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at this event.^[11]

Track changes

The DRS zone leading in to turn 1 was extended by 100 metres (330 ft).^[12]

Practice

Three free practice sessions were held for the event. The first free practice session was held on 13 September 2024, at 13:30 local time (UTC+4),^[1] and was topped by Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Verstappen's teammate Sergio Pérez. The session saw three red flags be flown, the first for debris, the second for an accident involving Charles Leclerc of Ferrari at turn 15, and the third for a crash involving Franco Colapinto of Williams at turn 4.^[13] The second free practice session was held on the same day, at 17:00 local time,^[1] and was topped by Leclerc ahead of Pérez and Hamilton.^[14]

The third practice session was held on 14 September 2024, at 12:30 local time,^[1] and was topped by George Russell of Mercedes ahead of Leclerc and Lando Norris of McLaren. The session was red-flagged twice; firstly for Esteban Ocon of Alpine stopping on track due to an engine issue, secondly for Oliver Bearman of Haas crashing at turn 1.^[15]

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on 14 September 2024, at 16:00 local time (UTC+4).^[1]

Qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Final grid
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:42.775	1:42.056	1:41.365	1
2	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1:43.033	1:42.598	1:41.686	2
3	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:43.357	1:42.503	1:41.805	3
4	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:43.213	1:42.263	1:41.813	4
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:43.139	1:42.329	1:41.874	5
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:43.097	1:42.042	1:42.023	6
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:43.089	1:42.765	1:42.289	PL¹
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:43.472	1:42.426	1:42.369	7
9	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	1:43.138	1:42.473	1:42.530	8
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:42.899	1:42.840	1:42.859	9
11	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	1:43.471	1:42.968	N/A	10
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1:43.337	1:43.035	N/A	11
13	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1:43.101	1:43.191	N/A	12
14	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:43.370	1:43.404	N/A	13
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	1:43.547	N/A	N/A	14
16	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:43.609	N/A	N/A	15
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	1:43.618	N/A	N/A	16
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	1:44.246	N/A	N/A	17²
19	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:44.504	N/A	N/A	PL³
DSQ	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1:43.088	1:43.179	N/A	18⁴
107% time: 1:49.969
Source:^[16]^[17]

Notes

^1 – Lewis Hamilton qualified seventh, but was required to start the race from the pit lane for replacing power unit elements without the approval of the technical delegate during parc fermé.^[17]^[18]
^2 – Zhou Guanyu was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.^[17]^[19]
^3 – Esteban Ocon qualified 19th, but was required to start the race from the pit lane for replacing power unit elements without the approval of the technical delegate during parc fermé.^[17]^[18]
^4 – Pierre Gasly initially qualified 13th, but was subsequently disqualified as his car exceeded the instantaneous fuel mass flow limit in Q2. He was permitted to race at the stewards' discretion.^[17]^[20]

Race

The race was held on 15 September 2024, at 15:00 local time (UTC+4), and was run for 51 laps.^[1]

Race report

The race was won by McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who took his second career win. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and George Russell, driving for Mercedes, rounded out the podium. McLaren's other driver, Lando Norris, obtained the fastest lap point and recovered from his fifteenth place start to finish fourth. With Red Bull driver Max Verstappen finishing fifth, and his teammate Sergio Pérez retiring, Red Bull lost the lead of the Constructors' championship to McLaren, marking the first time since the 2022 Miami Grand Prix that Red Bull did not lead the Constructors' Championship, and the first time that McLaren led the Constructors' Championship since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. Both Williams drivers scored a season-best finish of seventh and eighth, respectively, marking their best finish since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, and Franco Colapinto's four points made him the first Argentine driver to score a point since Carlos Reutemann at the 1982 South African Grand Prix. The race was neutralised on lap 50 after a collision, later deemed a shared-fault 'racing incident' by the stewards,^[21] between Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Pérez, causing both to retire and the race to end under the virtual safety car.^[22]

Race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	51	1:32:58.007	2	25
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	51	+10.910	1	18
3	63	George Russell	Mercedes	51	+31.328	5	15
4	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	51	+36.143	15	13¹
5	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	51	+1:17.098	6	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	51	+1:25.468	7	8
7	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	51	+1:27.396	9	6
8	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	51	+1:29.541	8	4
9	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	51	+1:32.396	PL	2
10	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	51	+1:33.127	10	1
11	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	51	+1:33.465	12
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	51	+1:57.189	18
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	51	+2:26.907	14
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	51	+2:28.841	17
15	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	50	+1 lap	PL
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber-Ferrari	50	+1 lap	16
17²	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	49	Collision	4
18²	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	49	Collision	3
19²	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	45	Brakes	13
Ret	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	14	Collision damage	11
Fastest lap: Lando Norris (McLaren-Mercedes) – 1:45.255 (lap 42)
Source:^[17]^[23]^[24]^[25]