Charles Leclerc Could Have Won the Azerbaijan GP If He Hadn’t Repeated Oscar Piastri’s Mistake

After 2017, history repeated itself at the 2024 Azerbaijan GP as an Australian’s dive bomb overtake translated into a race win. On this occasion, it was Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren successor — Oscar Piastri. The only difference was the 23-year-old’s late lunge was for the lead. The incredible move might’ve earned him the win but F1 expert Tim Hauraney believes Charles Leclerc could’ve retaken the lead on one occasion.

Piastri showed an incredible display of defense after taking the race lead from Leclerc on lap 20. However, he was always within touching distance of the Ferrari man. Despite Leclerc’s multiple efforts, he could not pass the young Australian. On the Nailing the Apex podcast, Hauraney highlighted the one instance where he could’ve easily taken the lead if it wasn’t for his identical error to Piastri.

He said, “There’s like memes of it going around online right now where they’re coming out of the last turn and like Piastri gets a huge snap. Then Leclerc is right behind, like drifting behind him. And it’s a great shot by the two of them.”

“But that’s the moment where if Leclerc hadn’t made that mistake and they’re heading down towards turn one, there’s such a run there that Leclerc can just get on that inside sooner. And that is what he had to do.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1)

The viral identical drift at the exit of turn 16 saw both of them go wide and ride the kerb. Had Leclerc managed to maintain his balance on the exit, according to Hauraney, he would’ve had better traction and the perfect opportunity to overtake Piastri.

However, it wasn’t to be and Leclerc couldn’t break his trend of not winning from pole position in Baku for the fourth consecutive year. Still, it was an extremely difficult race for both drivers.

Piastri confessed about his 50/50 overtake

It wasn’t a straightforward and comfortable win for Piastri by any stretch of the imagination. He was constantly under pressure from an adamant Leclerc until the last few laps of the race. The pressure was so high when he was in the lead throughout that the Aussie couldn’t help but admit he was afraid during the cool-down room chat.

Leclerc admitted he saw the dive bomb move coming, and decided to let Piastri pass to try to overtake later with DRS which never happened. However, the McLaren man stated, “To be honest, there was about 10 laps where I thought it was going to happen, so I was pretty afraid.” 

Piastri also confessed the 50/50 chance of his overtake. He added, “To be honest, when I hit the brakes, I was like, there’s a 50-50 chance whether I make the corner or not.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1)

Regardless, it was an enjoyable watch and the close racing was entertaining for the two battling in the front. This was evident with Leclerc and Piastri’s post-race interaction when they both looked at their turn 16 slide and joked about it as well.