This could be the defining moment of the entire F1 season and propel McLaren to the championship.
Charles Leclerc started from pole position ahead of Oscar Piastri at Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix and pulled away from the McLaren driver in the first half of the race. Leclerc's SF-24 was tuned on the medium compound, while Piastri's MCL38 fell off the pace as the driver's tyres began to deteriorate.
However, everything changed when both drivers pitted for hard tyres and Piastri slowly built up a lead over Leclerc. At the end of lap 19, Piastri closed on Leclerc and pulled off a dramatic overtake that amazed Alex Jacques and Jolyon Palmer in the broadcast booth. F1 TV Searching for the right words, I came up with “extraordinary” and “typical Ricardo.”
Taking advantage of the DRS, Piastri closed the gap to Leclerc ahead to within 20 metres while travelling at over 330kph. Piastri then cuts to the inside and grabs the inside racing line, but needs to get his braking absolutely right to make the overtake and avoid the wall at Turn 1 left-hander.
Somehow, he managed to pull off the move. Leclerc tried to fight back on the exit of Turn 1, but Piastri blocked his move.
As the laps went on, Leclerc had several chances to retake the lead, but Piastri denied him each time, until finally, with Leclerc also struggling with rear tyre deterioration, Piastri pulled away to take his second Grand Prix win.
This victory, and an incredible recovery drive from Lando Norris (he went from 15th at the start of the race to fourth place, and also earned a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race), saw McLaren leapfrog Red Bull into the lead of the constructors' championship.
There are still plenty of races left this season and Red Bull believe an improved version of the RB20 will be available from next month's United States Grand Prix, but if McLaren wins their first title since 1998, they may look back on this overtaking as the moment it became possible.
Perhaps that is to be expected.
