F1 heads to Azerbaijan for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku Street Circuit after Charles Leclerc won an emotional Italian Grand Prix as the Drivers’ Championship race heats up.
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Sunday 15 September 2024 – 13:00
Baku Street Circuit
The rumour mills are churning at the moment with Max Verstappen’s poor run of form behind the wheel of a Red Bull seeing friction grow between himself and his team to the point where Verstappen’s future post his latest contract is in doubt.
The reigning world champion finds himself only 62 points clear at the summit of the Drivers’ Championship standings while his team are only eight points clear of McLaren-Mercedes.
With the pressure on, Verstappen and Red Bull desperately need a win at Baku, which has been a track they have dominated at winning four of the six Grand Prix staged at the venue.
To Win Race Outright
Lando Norris 12/10 | Charles LeClerc 5/1 | Oscar Piastri 5/1 | Max Verstappen 13/2 | Carlos Sainz 10/1 | Lewis Hamilton 14/1 | George Russell 14/1
Previous Race – Italy
A home win had Ferrari fans over the moon at Monza with Charles LeClerc bringing his car home to rapturous applause from a partisan Italian crowd. It was the first Ferrari victory at the venue since the self-same LeClerc won it back in 2019.
A bold one-stop pit strategy reaped dividends for LeClerc but his teammate, Carlos Sainz, didn’t have as much joy as he ended up in fourth place behind Oscar Piastri and pole-sitter Lando Norris who claimed second and third respectively.
The next two drivers across the line were the most recent two to win Drivers’ Championships with Lewis Hamilton claiming fifth and Max Verstappen taking sixth.
The Dutch ace brought his car across the line ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s soon-to-be ex-teammate, George Russell with Sergio Perez ensuring the Mercedes-Red Bull sequence would continue as he claimed eighth place.
The final two points scoring positions would go to Alexander Albon who produced a decent drive to bring his car home in ninth ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
This time last week - Charles Leclerc, Ferrari and the Tifosi conquer Monza once more 🇮🇹#F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/ehAhVuVqf1
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 8, 2024
Track – Baku Street Circuit
This track presents numerous overtaking opportunities, but the drivers will know from last year’s race that trying to overtake at every opportunity will only end in a crash.
The standout feature of the Baku Street Circuit and where we could well see some more wheel-to-wheel action is the long straight that runs from Turn 1 to Turn 20.
This race has been dominated by Red Bull since its inception with Max Verstappen winning the 2022 event while Sergio Perez won the 2021 race and last year’s one as well. Going back a bit further in time Daniel Ricciardo got the inaugural win at the track when he was behind the wheel of a Red Bull, while Mercedes won the 2018 and 2019 editions of the race with Lewis Hamilton claiming the 2018 win and Valtteri Bottas the 2019 win.
In terms of the weather for this weekend, we’ve finally got a race with clear skies being forecast with Sunday’s race day set to be a beautiful sunny day while Friday and Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions will have a few clouds floating about but no rain in the early forecast. (*Article was written on Monday 9 September.)
Value Bet
Charles LeClerc – Podium Yes 6/10
He claimed the third spot at the venue last year and the fastest lap the year before that. LeClerc also produced a great drive in Italy and Ferrari seems to have their cars finally tuned. I’ll be having a crack on him to claim a win here.
To Win Race Outright
Oscar Piastri 5/1
He was desperately unlucky to have not claimed a race win last weekend and I feel he is about to hit a very rich vein of form. He’s yet to get on the podium in Baku but I reckon he’ll go even better than that this weekend and claim the win.
