The start brought no major surprises, with the Monegasque retaining first position through Turn 1, while Piastri and Sergio Perez completed the top three, the latter having managed to overtake the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Lando Norris, on the other hand, starting from the back after the unfortunate elimination in Q1, immediately made several overtakes in the opening laps, reaching the points-paying positions by the third lap.

The Brit easily got past several drivers ahead of him, including Max Verstappen, who, after qualifying sixth, didn’t seem to have much pace in the race either.

At the front, however, Piastri made his move at the start of lap 20 after the first pit stop, drawing alongside Leclerc on the straight and overtaking him decisively to take the lead of the race.

However, the Australian was unable to pull away, with Leclerc keeping close behind and launching a first attack on lap 29 without success, then trying again on lap 32, only to be repelled once more.

In the final laps, however, Leclerc began to suffer heavy tire degradation, with his teammate and Perez closing in behind him with only two laps remaining. Sainz attempted an overtake on his teammate at Turn 2 but came out worse than the Mexican behind him.

On the ensuing straight, the two ran side by side, resulting in contact that ended both of their races. Russell took advantage, moving up to third place, while Piastri crossed the finish line to celebrate the second victory of his career.

Last year, the Baku race brought no surprises in terms of weather, with the race taking place on a dry track as expected. Will it be the same this year, or will rain shake things up? Here’s the weather forecast for this weekend.