Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended with a brilliant win for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who first boldly overtook and then held off Charles Leclerc to secure a second victory of 2024. His team-mate Lando Norris fought back from 15th superbly to finish fourth, even ahead of title rival Max Verstappen who started nine places ahead of him.
In the closing stages, the race became a battle royale on the streets of Baku with just three seconds separating the top four of Piastri, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz. As Leclerc’s rear tyres gave up on lap 47, Piastri sailed off into the distance making it a titanic three-way fight for second.
That all came to a dramatic end on the penultimate lap, as Sainz and Pérez collided and finished in the barriers. A furious Pérez labelled Sainz a “f—– idiot” while the Spaniard still seemed confused by it all long after the chequered flag. Both drivers were summoned to the stewards, but the FIA deemed it to be a racing incident with no further action taken.
Here is how it unfolded:
The build-up
After the three-way fight for the lead ended, Sainz – who had excellent pace at this point – soon closed up onto the rear wing of Pérez, making it a three-way fight for second. As the trio entered the final sector on lap 49, there was a little more than a second between them.
Leclerc, as the lead driver of the three, did not have the option to open his rear wing flap and use the Drag Reduction System (DRS) on the pit straight. Crucially, both Pérez and Sainz did.
Pit straight/turn one
Benefitting both from a slipstream from Leclerc and the use of DRS, Pérez closes in on Leclerc as they finish lap 49. As they arrive at turn one, the Red Bull driver pulls to the outside as Leclerc defends the inside. That is in contrast to him leaving the door ajar when he lost the lead to Piastri at the same corner earlier in the race.
Yet Pérez is unable to force the overtake and then has to back off on exit as Leclerc puts the throttle down with better grip. This allows Sainz, who gets far better traction out of the corner, to easily pass the Red Bull as they head into turn two.
Turn two
It becomes a Ferrari-on-Ferrari battle, with Sainz having a look around the outside of his team-mate at turn two, without fully committing to an overtake.
With Pérez clearly behind the Scuderia pair, the Mexican favours a cleaner exit and is able to get on the power sooner than Sainz, who takes a wider line.
Second straight/DRS zone
At this point Leclerc is comfortably ahead going down the second straight. Eyes are now on Sainz in third and Pérez in fourth. As they exit turn two, Pérez’s front wheels are level with Sainz’s rear wheels and the Red Bull is rapidly closing.
There is initially around a metre between Sainz on the outside and Pérez in the middle of the track. Sainz then starts to move left towards Pérez, while the Red Bull driver appears to hold his line or even slightly left too.
Sainz’s rear-left wheel then touches Pérez’s right sidepod, dramatically spearing both cars into the left wall and then sliding down the barriers. Wheels and wings fly off and carbon fibre is strewn across the track, in effect bringing an end to the race as the virtual safety car is deployed.
This hands George Russell a surprise podium while Norris inherits fourth ahead of Verstappen. Fortunately, the virtual safety car denies the Dutchman a chance to set the fastest lap that Norris holds, meaning a net two-point swing to the McLaren man in the standings.
What they said
Pérez was, understandably, annoyed and surprised after the crash. “What the f— is he even doing, man? What the f—? Is he crazy or what? F—– idiot!” he said immediately after the crash. Speaking in the mixed zone Pérez called the crash a “disaster” on a weekend where he had the better of team-mate Verstappen for the first time in 2024. He also put the blame firmly on Sainz.
“I mean, not really a lot of words to say. It’s a disaster for the championship for both of us to end our weekend like this when we definitely had a lot more on the table,” he said.
“I think in my opinion Carlos moved too quickly to follow the tow from Charles. It was just wrong time, wrong moment and it resulted in a huge shunt.”
Sainz, however, was a little more placid but ultimately confused by what occurred. “I don’t get it. What happened there? What happened,” he said to the team with his Ferrari in the barriers.
Even after the dust had literally settled, Sainz was still confused as to what caused the crash.
“Unfortunately after passing Checo [Pérez] into turn one and after fighting Charles in turn two there was a very unexpected contact exiting turn two that honestly I still don’t understand how it happened,” Sainz said.
“I didn’t do any erratic manoeuvres or any aggressive moving on Checo or anything like that but we, for some reason that I still don’t understand, collided.”
When asked if he expected to pick up a penalty from the stewards, Sainz was unsure but defended himself. “Honestly, you never know what can happen but this time I am 100 per cent sure I didn’t do anything wrong or anything aggressive.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the crash was “heartbreaking”.
“It cost us a lot of damage and vital points in the constructors’ championship. It’s one of those things that’s very heartbreaking for him and the team that so much effort goes into it to lose a podium in the dying moments of the race,” he said.
The stewards’ verdict
The FIA stewards looked at the incident after the race, noting specifically they reviewed how it occurred and not the consequences, which they note were “significant” despite coming from a “small touch”.
Sainz reported to the stewards that he was aware of Pérez, but that Pérez was in a better position to see the relative location of the cars. From the exit at turn two and throughout “neither driver steered erratically, and indeed both kept their steering wheel very neutral,” the verdict says.
It concludes: “The stewards checked the driving line of the drivers on previous laps. Sainz was on or close to his normal racing line, which forms a slight angle away from the right hand wall. From the exit to the point of contact he move[d] approximately one car width further away from the wall. Pérez moved approximately half a car width further away from the same wall, being more parallel to the right hand wall.
“It was thus apparent that while ahead, and having the right to drive his line, Sainz did move slightly towards a car that he had limited vision of. At the same time, there was nothing unusual about Pérez’s line, but he could have done more to avoid the car that he had better view of.”
Telegraph Sport’s verdict
This was a pretty amateurish crash but the blame should fall more on Sainz’s shoulders. As the stewards noted, it is always the case that both drivers can almost always do more to avoid a collision, but that does not mean liability should be apportioned equally.
The comments about normal racing lines are one thing – and go some way to exonerating Sainz – but should they really be applicable when cars are battling in close quarters? At that point, “normal” racing lines tend to overlap significantly.
In the replays you can see Sainz checks his mirrors just before he moves over, however slightly, on Pérez. The sun, which was low in the sky at this point in the day, could have decreased Sainz’s visibility too.
Still, he was the one who moved on to Pérez and said he knew he was there. Although the stewards’ verdict is reasonable, a three-place grid penalty for the next race would also have been understandable given the consequences, which should always be taken into account when applying a penalty, whatever the stewards say.
