Despite having a topsy-turvy weekend with a crash in FP1, Charles Leclerc’s Azerbaijan GP performance was near perfect. He could have converted his Baku pole to a win finally, but couldn’t do so due to Oscar Piastri’s brilliance on Sunday. Former McLaren mechanic, Marc Priestley explained that Leclerc’s FP1 crash was also a factor behind the #16 driver losing out on the race win.
On BBC’s F1: Chequered Flag podcast, Priestley reacted to Leclerc‘s post-race interview snippet wherein the Ferrari driver highlighted that they got pole and had supreme race pace on Sunday despite his FP1 crash. He stated, “It’s always been a strong track for me. I don’t think it [the FP1 crash] affected”.
However, Priestley thinks otherwise. He said, “I can’t help think that the crash that he had on Friday FP1 did affect them. Because the result of him putting it in the wall in FP1, they had another problem in FP2, massively limited running.”
The ex-McLaren mechanic reasoned that Ferrari couldn’t do a hard-tire run on high fuel during either FP1 or FP2 on Friday due to Leclerc’s crash. In FP2 particularly, Leclerc lost crucial track time due to a bent steering rack which could have been a consequence of his turn 15 crash in the morning.
Nevertheless, the Monegasque showed his prowess around the Baku streets in qualifying to clinch his fourth consecutive pole in Azerbaijan. In the Grand Prix as well, his pace seemed quite consistent and comparable to Piastri’s McLaren.
Although, Piastri‘s brilliant overtake after their pitstops for hard tires made the difference. The Aussie’s bold move — by going late on the brakes — into turn 1 caught Leclerc off-guard. From there, Piastri banked on the MCL38’s pace to keep Leclerc at bay till the chequered flag.
Overall, the #81 driver had a better drive than Leclerc, earning him his second career victory. On the other hand, the Monegasque was aiming to end his streak of not winning in Baku, but he fell short for the fourth year running.
