We’re at the start of another double-header as the Formula 1 circus makes its way to the Baku street circuit for the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

This season is easily cementing itself as one of the most exciting races in recent memory, with a huge shake-up in order and pace thanks to McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes (specifically their newfound pace). Here’s what happened at last night’s race.

1. Properly clean and hard racing among the top three. With Lando Norris (McLaren) out of the picture due to a surprising Q1 exit that saw him qualify P15 (after a few penalties from other drivers), this race looked to be in the bag for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. sandwiched the lone McLaren of Oscar Piastri in P2—with Sergio Perez (Red Bull) in P4.

After an initial scrap at the start that saw Perez move up to P3 and Leclerc maintain his lead, the race became fairly uneventful apart from a tussle between Yuki Tsunoda (VCARB) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) that resulted in both of them eventually DNFing. Things began heating up as the first rounds of pit stops started happening around Lap 16.

Here, Norris (now P5) was told to “hold up Perez to protect his teammate’s track position.” To the dismay of the Mexican, this worked out well for McLaren as Piastri exited in front of the Red Bull after a well-executed pit stop.

The Australian pushed hard until he managed an impressive dive-bomb overtake on Leclerc on Lap 20 for the lead. The McLaren cruised away into the lead this time. For the next 28 laps, it was a constant and tight three-way battle among Piastri, Leclerc, and Perez, all within a few hundredths of a second of each other.

Despite small mistakes and backmarker traffic, Piastri never succumbed to the pressure of a Ferrari hot on his tail. This paid dividends as, on Lap 48, Leclerc suddenly dropped off massively due to his rear tires having no grip.

This would have been a great result for Ferrari as Leclerc and Sainz were occupying the rest of the podium spaces, but…

2. A heartbreaking end for Sainz and Perez. Lap 50 saw things get heated for the third place. Perez and Sainz Jr. were neck-and-neck for the final podium place. For a moment, we thought this was going to be a race to the finish line until the two collided between Turns 2 and 3.

Now, before you point fingers at who was responsible for this, the stewards have ruled out that no further action would be taken on either of the drivers, and this was simply a racing incident.

This meant the race would finish under a virtual safety car, promoting George Russell (Mercedes-AMG) to P3, and Norris to P4, crucially giving McLaren the lead in the constructors’ championship.

3. Lando Norris had a great weekend despite the bad start. All eyes are pretty much on Norris as he’s the closest contender who has a chance to snatch the driver’s championship away from Max Verstappen (Red Bull).

But as mentioned earlier, a bad qualifying result looked to have put him out of contention. Despite that, the Brit raced through the pack, participated in team orders, and even managed to outrace a struggling Verstappen to take P4 alongside the fastest lap, which is crucial in the championship battle.

4. Two struggling champions. We’re going to keep this one short, as it’s already obvious how Max Verstappen was not able to break into the top three the entire race. Even Norris was able to make easy work of the Red Bull on Lap 25, where the current champion complained that his “brakes were not working.”

Verstappen eventually finished in P5, but it was a weekend to forget for him.

More surprising is Lewis Hamilton struggling after his past few positive races. The Briton’s pit-lane start meant he had to fight his way up the pack, but he suffered issues driving his car, even telling Bono (his race engineer): “Are you seeing how I have to drive this thing?”

Hamilton did end up finishing within the points, placing P9.

4. Two rookies had a great weekend. With Kevin Magnussen (Haas) serving a one-race ban, it was the return of Oliver Bearman to take the Dane’s place. The Brit had made a great debut at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a fairly clean weekend, and he continued to deliver at this rather chaotic race.

A solid P11 qualifying result, some good back-and-forth action between him and Hamilton, and a late overtake on teammate Nico Hulkenberg saw him finish in the last points place (P10).

As for Franco Colapinto (Williams), the Argentinian’s second race weekend in F1 was extraordinarily strong, with him qualifying P9 (ahead of teammate Alex Albon in P10). His main rival the entire race was Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who managed to edge out the two Williams drivers to finish in P6 by the end of the race.

Albon finished a respectable P7, with Colapinto following in P8. This was the strongest result of Williams in a while, netting them 10 points in the championship.

With McLaren now leading the constructors’ championship, and three different drivers all within contention for the driver’s championship, this season can only get spicier.

The next race will be happening next door at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore on September 22 (8pm), which means this is one race we Filipinos can easily enjoy, whether live or via your favorite streaming service.