The final laps of the 2024 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix were perhaps among the most chaotic of the entire season. While for much of the second stint, the battle for the win between Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc made the race exciting, in the last few laps, the situation changed, with Charles Leclerc increasingly struggling to manage his rear tires and facing chronic grip issues.
This drop-off allowed Carlos Sainz to re-enter the fight, inserting himself into the battle for the podium after recovering several seconds on the leading group thanks to careful tire management and the many battles in front of him. Thus, the fight for second place became a three-way contest between the two Ferrari cars and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
However, only one of these three cars made it to the finish line, as both Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Sergio Perez’s Red Bull ended up in the wall on the penultimate lap. The contact is still being debated to determine who was at fault. It all started when, with one lap to go, the Mexican driver tried to attack Leclerc into Turn 1 using DRS but couldn’t complete the overtake, as the Monegasque defended well on the dirtier line.
This caused Perez to take a wider trajectory out of Turn 1, giving Carlos Sainz, who was right behind, the opportunity to slip through and gain a position for the podium. In the following corner, Turn 2, Carlos Sainz managed to get alongside his teammate Charles Leclerc, who had meanwhile tried to protect the inside by lifting off the throttle earlier to close the corner and hit the apex without losing too much on exit.
Thus, Carlos Sainz found himself on a slightly wider and dirtier line, while Sergio Perez behind him set up the corner better for a strong exit, positioning himself to surprise Sainz on the straight leading to the next braking zone. It was at this point that the two made contact: the Spaniard believes Perez had plenty of space to move left, while the Mexican holds the opposite view, claiming that Carlos Sainz came towards him.
Even though the medical car was required due to the high impact forces recorded by the sensors, both drivers fortunately emerged unharmed. “I’m fine, but it was a big crash, unfortunately I hit the barrier against the concrete wall,” Carlos Sainz said as he began explaining the dynamics of the incident which ended his race.
“Honestly, I was coming up very fast behind Charles and Checo, I had also saved my tires, and I managed to pass Checo while he was battling with Charles. We exited Turn 2, and at that point, I maintained my trajectory, the racing line. I didn’t make any strange or wrong moves. But for some reason, which I still don’t understand, we collided. I believe Checo had a lot of space on the left,” added the Ferrari driver, emphasizing that Sergio Perez had enough room to move left and avoid the collision.
“I didn’t make any strange moves, but I think that’s racing. Sometimes you go through 48 laps without issues, and then with two or three laps to go, something like this happens.” – he pointed out at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Exiting that corner, drivers typically move towards the left, especially since the track is designed with a widened section that allows for more speed through the corner. However, that widened section lasts only a few meters before narrowing back towards the white line. This is an aspect Carlos Sainz highlighted in his analysis, stating that he indeed moved left but to follow what he considered the ideal line.
“I followed my normal racing line and the line we take every lap on this track. Exiting Turn 2, we always move slightly left, but without making any strange or irregular moves. Even Charles in front of me moved left, and I was following his slipstream,” added the Spaniard. On the contrary, Perez roughly held his line, and it’s on this point that Carlos Sainz focused his attention.
Beyond the incident, Carlos Sainz had a race of two halves: after a less-than-stellar first part, where he was overtaken by Perez at the start, the Spaniard showed great pace in the second part, capitalizing on the battles among the leaders.
“I was very fast, honestly. I lost a lot of time in the pit stop and on the in-lap because I was in the drop-off phase of the medium tires, so I accumulated around ten seconds of delay. But today, I was the fastest, and I was fighting for second place, so it’s disappointing to go home with zero points. I had a great rhythm, so it’s extremely frustrating. Especially on a track where I’m usually slow, today I was very fast, so it’s a big disappointment.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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