Sunday 15 September 2024 2:03 pm

F1 Driver Standings after Piastri wins in Baku and Norris closes gap on Verstappen

Deputy Sports Editor - Morning Wire

Oscar Piastri won a thrilling F1 race in Baku on Sunday as McLaren overtook Red Bull in the Constructors’ Standings and Lando Norris inched towards title leader Max Verstappen.

Piastri and Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc were in a bitter battle for the race win before the McLaren driver pulled away and a crash between the chasing Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez landed Mercedes’ George Russell on the podium.

Further down the pack, Norris closed down a gap of over 15 seconds to overtake title rival Verstappen and close the gap to the Dutchman in the standings.

F1 Driver Standings

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	313
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	254
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	235
4	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	222
5	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	184
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	166
7	Serigo Perez	Red Bull	143
8	George Russell	Mercedes	143
9	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	58
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	24
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	22
12	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	22
13	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	12
14	Alex Albon	Williams	12
15	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	8
16	Oliver Bearman	Ferrari/Haas	7
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	6
18	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	5
19	Franco Colapinto	Williams	4
20	Zhou Guanyu	Kick	0
21	Logan Sargeant	Williams	0
22	Valtteri Bottas	Kick	0

Driver Standings

Piastri said: “I tried to get in front at the start of the race but I did not have the pace. It felt like we had extra grip and I had to go for it. The last couple of laps were a little bit more relaxing.”

Leclerc, second, said: “We didn’t do any running in practice and we went down a direction for the race that was hard to manage. Oscar and McLaren have been better than us but not a great day for the team.”

Russell said: “I tried to get in front at the start of the race but I did not have the pace. It felt like we had extra grip and I had to go for it. The last couple of laps were a little bit more relaxing.”