Ferrari Baku race report: Charles Leclerc P2, Carlos Sainz DNF after Perez crash | F1 Azerbaijan GP. Ferrari Baku race report: how Maranello team performed in Azerbaijan.

Here is our full text transcript from the 17th round of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign, which took place at the 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit:

Welcome to race day for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix! This could be a big race in the championship as title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are not at the front of the grid. Max Verstappen will start in sixth and Norris in 15th after he was knocked out in Q1 yesterday. Charles Leclerc is on the front row with Oscar Piastri alongside him and both drivers know if they win today, and Verstappen has a tricky race, they could vault themselves into title contention.

Lewis Hamilton starts from the pit lane after Mercedes elected to change his entire power unit.

Charles Leclerc is aiming for his second straight win after the magic of Monza – but this would be his first in Baku despite taking three poles here before his great qualifying yesterday.

Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc speaking to Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz:

“I always have a 40-minute nap before doing this! I was sleeping two minutes ago but I’m awake now and ready for it. Starting in first is a good position and we have Carlos in third, so hopefully with two cars at the front we can bring home the victory. There’s graining on both axles. Here it is even more difficult than Monza to control it and I did no high fuel running, so that’s the big thing for me today, to be at ease with the car at high speed.”

Oliver Bearman finished seventh in his F1 debut earlier this year in Saudi Arabia when he replaced Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at late notice. The British teenager starts 10th today for Haas and the car has looked strong all weekend, so he’s got a great chance of scoring some points today.

Interestingly, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren have saved two new sets of hard tyres. We should see a one-stop race but we also said that last time in Monza and many teams elected to go for a two-stop. The timing of the Safety Car will be key too as pitting under one means you lose less time. We have seen a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car in every Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Don’t expect to see the softs unless we get a very late Safety Car. If we do get a restart after a Safety Car, it will be chaotic due to the long flat out zone before the start finish line.

Remarkably, Lando Norris hasn’t gained a position on the first lap this season. He would love to change that today from 15th on the grid. Lewis Hamilton starts from the pit lane remember, along with Esteban Ocon.

The top eight drivers are starting on the mediums and, crucially, Lando Norris has opted to start on the hard tyres. Alex Albon in ninth, Daniel Ricciardo in 14th, Zhou Guanyu in 17th, Pierre Gasly in 18th and Esteban Ocon from the pit lane are also on the hards.

One final tour of this majestic street circuit before the racing gets underway. All safely off the line, with Charles Leclerc leading the pack around. Plenty of drivers out of position here, so expect drama shortly!

Lap 1/51: Charles Leclerc retains the lead from Oscar Piastri into Turn One and Sergio Perez overtakes Carlos Sainz down the inside to take third. Max Verstappen is ahead of George Russell too in fifth. A good start for the Red Bulls! Safe, and pretty impressive start for Lando Norris – he’s up to 13th and ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo. He’s on Lance Stroll’s tail. Lewis Hamilton is 19th after his pit-lane start.

Lap 2/51: DRS is enabled. At the front Oscar Piastri is within one second of Charles Leclerc. Sergio Perez is already dropping away in third.

Lap 3/51: Lando Norris closes up to Tsunoda and then passes him into Turn 2. Tsunoda doesn’t have DRS and he’s then taken by Nico Hulkenberg, losing two places in a matter of seconds! Next up for Norris is Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman in 10th.

Lap 4/51: Tsunoda seems to have a slight issue and is slipping back – and a fast-starting Hamilton takes advantage, getting ahead into 15th. Four places made up so far for the Mercedes driver.

Lap 5/51: The battle for the lead continues and Oscar Piastri is still within one second of Charles Leclerc. Piastri looks faster right now than the Ferrari in this phase of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Lap 6/51: Charles is just doing enough in the final sector to edge out his lead to nine tenths, then Piastri uses DRS to close in. They trade fastest laps as Perez can’t stay with them.

Lap 7/51: A new fastest lap from Charles Leclerc sees him finally get Oscar Piastri out of his DRS. Leclerc was eight tenths quicker on the last lap compared to Piastri.

Lap 8/51: On his first opportunity with DRS, Lando Norris dives down the inside into Turn 1 and overtakes his fellow young Briton Bearman. Alex Albon is next up the road, four seconds away.

Lap 8/51: Leclerc is 2.4 seconds ahead of Piastri as he does another new fastest lap. This is great pace from the Ferrari driver. Piastri is told he’s on Plan B – does that mean he may pit earlier than expected?

Lap 10/51: As Leclerc extends his lead to three seconds, Perez is now just 1.5 seconds behind Piastri.

Lap 11/51: We have our first stop of the day – Franco Colapinto boxing from eighth. Trying to undercut Fernando Alonso. perhaps? It’s a rather early stop. Hard tyres go on.

Lap 13/51: Max Verstappen and George Russell, running fifth and sixth, both come into the pits, with a slightly slow stop for Verstappen. He comes out in a touch of traffic, 10th behind Ricciardo. Russell is 12th. Lewis Hamilton has also boxed, he’s back out in 18th. All those three are on the hard tyres.

Lap 14/51: Sergio Perez pits for a set of hards from third place and emerges in sixth place, two seconds behind Lando Norris, who hasn’t pitted.

Lap 15/51: McLaren tell Norris to hold Perez up through the tight castle section and he does! Perez isn’t happy as Norris blocks him in the middle sector.

Lap 16/51: Piastri pits from second place and he DOES come out ahead of Perez. The holding up job from Norris means Piastri stays in a net second place.

Lap 17/51: Charles Leclerc pits for hard tyres and crucially comes out in front of Alex Albon, who has Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez all over him. Albon hasn’t pitted and this will help Leclerc a lot.

Lap 18/51: Oscar Piastri gets ahead of Alex Albon into Turn 1… but Sergio Perez is still stuck behind the Williams that has yet to stop! Carlos Sainz meanwhile pits, so it’s Leclerc and Piastri one and two once again.

Lap 20/51: Piastri has great speed on the hard tyres and he dives down the inside at Turn One on Leclerc and just about gets it stopped. Leclerc tries to come back at him but Piastri covers the Ferrari driver off down to Turn Two, then Turn Three. Meanwhile, we still have six drivers who have yet to stop in this race, Albon, Norris, Gasly, Ricciardo, Zhou and Ocon – that means every single driver is running on the hards.

Lap 21/51: Piastri holds off Leclerc down the main straight but Perez joins the lead battle too. Three cars within two seconds of each other for the lead. This is great stuff.

Lap 22/51: This is brilliant. Piastri is just about keeping Leclerc at bay. The Ferrari driver says: “They are pushing like crazy, or they have more grip than us.” It seems like Leclerc wants to manage his tyres but can’t because he’s in a big battle!

Lap 23/51: Carlos Sainz dives down the inside of Lando Norris to take fifth place. Max Verstappen is now the car behind Norris. Max Verstappen now encounters Norris’ McLaren but the Brit shuts the door down the inside on the main straight, and then again on the next DRS straight!

Lap 24/51: Action everywhere as Leclerc is still within one second of Piastri but isn’t close enough to make a move.

Lap 26/51: Leclerc is half a second behind Piastri across the line but too far back to go for a late lunge. Perez is still there in third place with the top three split by 1.8 seconds.

Lap 27/51: Lando Norris continues to hold up Max Verstappen despite the difference in tyre wear. For now, he’s sticking with Albon’s DRS and holding up Verstappen in the castle section. Not ideal for Red Bull! George Russell, just behind in eighth, asks Mercedes how long Norris and Albon will stay out for and his team expect another 10 laps at least.

Lap 29/51: Leclerc is a lot closer this time as Piastri defends the inside and holds off the Ferrari driver. Very good defending from Piastri. “Are you seeing how I have to drive this thing?” says Lewis Hamilton. “Copy, it is effective though,” Mercedes respond. Effective may not be the word Lewis wants to hear – he’s down in 14th and still behind the Haas of Oliver Bearman.

Lap 30/51: Still the same frustration at Red Bull with Verstappen stuck behind Norris and Albon. This is also bringing Russell back into play, he’s half a second off and in DRS range. The problem is, if Norris doesn’t pass Albon it feels like they will all hold station!

Lap 31/51: Leclerc forces Piastri to cover again and he does into Turn One. This is brilliant racing for the lead. Perez is just 1.2 seconds behind and there to capitalise if the front two get too close.

Lap 33/51: Leclerc goes to the outside at Turn One, tries to cut back but Piastri covers the inside again into Turn Two. Leclerc can’t get good traction off Turn Two and Piastri still leads. Now Perez is there too!

Lap 36/51: Charles Leclerc’s engineer tells him “come on Charles, keep it up!” This is just relentless. The front two haven’t been split by more than one second for over 15 laps now.

Lap 37/51: Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton is struggling in 13th place behind Williams’ Franco Colapinto and Haas’ Oliver Bearman.

Lap 38/51: In comes Lando Norris at last – he was showing great pace towards the end of his stint, moving clear of Russell. He comes back out in seventh, ahead of Alonso. Great work. He’s 15s behind Verstappen. Doable?

Lap 39/51: Sergio Perez is dropping off the front two, now 2.3s off Piastri and Leclerc. “Plan C,” say Ferrari to Leclerc. “Not stupid,” replies Leclerc. Could that be a two-stop?

Lap 40/51: “Best pace until the end,” McLaren tell Norris. He pumps in a new fastest lap in response. Verstappen’s advantage down to 13s with 11 laps to go.

Lap 41/51: Charles Leclerc thinks Piastri is starting to struggle. But the gap remains pretty consistent… Piastri shuts the door again into Turn One, moving to the inside and compromising Leclerc around the outside. Can Leclerc make anything stick as we head into the final 10 laps?

Lap 41/51: It’s been a frustrating afternoon for Lewis Hamilton to say the least. Some positive news at last, as he finally gets past Oliver Bearman at Turn One. That moves him up to 12th and he’ll now hunt down the Williams of Franco Colapinto.

Lap 43/51: A graphic on screen suggests Lando’s pace would mean a Verstappen overtake is possible in eight laps. It’s easy to see why – Lando is lapping 1.5s quicker than the Red Bull and the gap is down to under nine seconds with eight laps to go. Another fastest lap from Lando to boot.

Lap 44/51: Charles Leclerc is still consistently around 0.7s off Piastri, who holds on. Perez is still in DRS… and Carlos Sainz is edging into the fight, less than two seconds behind the Red Bull! What’s more, the leaders are coming up to backmarkers. Sensational finish we have in store here!

Lap 45/51: “Come on!” roar Ferrari on team radio as Leclerc continues to push – but Piastri is still holding that inside line into Turn 1 and Leclerc isn’t looking likely to pass anywhere else. Tense!

Lap 46/51: As it stands Norris, who is setting fastest lap after fastest lap, will be within overtaking range of Verstappen with two laps to go. We are primed for a thrilling finish at the front of the race AND the front of the drivers’ championship.

Lap 47/51: Five laps to go and we’ve just had the first straight in what feels like a lifetime that Leclerc didn’t have DRS on Piastri. Piastri looks comfortable, but it’s still just too close to call. Sainz, meanwhile, is now right on Perez’s tail. The top four are split by around three seconds!

Lap 48/51: Yes – that latest lap puts Piastri 1.7s clear of Leclerc! Suddenly, Leclerc is now under pressure from Perez, and Sainz. “No rear tyres at all,” says Leclerc.

Lap 49/51: Norris has done it. He’s passed his championship rival at Turn One! After starting in P15 he managed his hard tyres brilliantly on a long opening stint – and then reeled in a 15-second gap on a fresh set of mediums. Verstappen barely defended. He was a sitting duck as Norris breezes past.

Lap 50/51: WOAH! CARLOS SAINZ AND SERGIO PEREZ CRASH! Charles Leclerc just about holds off Perez into Turn 1 and then Sainz gets past the Red Bull. But Perez dives back down the inside into Turn 2, but the two cars then tangle and slam into the barriers!

What a drive from the Australian, he wins his second Formula 1 race! Brilliant defensive driving ahead of Charles Leclerc.

But what drama we had at the end, with Russell taking the final podium after Perez and Sainz’s crash.

That race means McLaren now hold a 20-point lead in the constructors’ standings, while Lando Norris claws back some of Max Verstappen’s advantage. It’s 59 points with seven races to go.