ICYMI: How social media reacted to an epic Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri claimed a remarkable second Grand Prix victory around the unforgiving streets of Baku, fighting past pole-sitter Charles Leclerc before defending until the very end to take the top step. While Ferrari had a bittersweet day with a podium and a detrimental crash, there was much to celebrate for others as the F1 world took to social media to praise the performances of the competitors.

The McLaren family congratulate Piastri

Thanks in part to Piastri’s victory, the papaya team have moved up to first in the standings for the first time in a decade, prompting many racers past and present to chime in on his win.

READ MORE: Webber calls Piastri’s Baku win ‘the best drive I’ve seen him pull off’ as he hails ‘world class’ effort

McLaren had no shortage of celebratory clips to share, with one revealing Team Principal Andrea Stella’s unexpected new catchphrase “let’s go baby”.

Across Instagram, McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird and F1 Academy’s Bianca Bustamante both reacted to the result in the comments, with the latter simply summarising it as “WHAAATAA DRIVEEEE”.

Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard is renowned for taking a selfie every time the Aussie is on the podium, but this time he was “too excited”, instead getting George Russell to take a photo of the two of them in the cool-down room. Piastri also posted the photo, crediting the Mercedes driver who jokingly commented: “Thanks for the photo cred, means a lot”.

Piastri commended outside the motorsport world

Piastri certainly received no shortage of praise from motorsport figures, including former Haas driver Romain Grosjean, who took to X to declare the Aussie’s overtake on Leclerc an “absolutely awesome send”.

The Aussie also shared an Instagram story from MotoGP racer Pedro Acosta, who wrote that Piastri was “welcome for the advice I gave you on Tuesday” – with the pair having recently karted together in France.

READ MORE: Piastri relieved after ‘hanging on for dear life’ to beat Leclerc and claim Baku victory

But his victory also reached a myriad of other sports, including cricket, with Australia’s Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja both applauding their countryman’s performance.

Adding to the list of sporting superstars, NBA’s Joel Embiid generated 51,000 likes on X after claiming that “Oscar Piastri is a future world champion”, prompting the McLaren driver to reply: “Not at basketball. Need a coaching session off you” – no harm in asking!

Lastly, Chelsea FC’s Aussie striker Sam Kerr joined in with the compliments, calling Piastri’s drive “V v good” on Instagram.

The battle for the win

Piastri’s initial overtake on Leclerc was recognised as a work of brilliance, with the top three discussing the bold move in the cooldown room after the race. While Russell exclaimed “oh!” at the replay, the Monegasque explained how he believed he could use DRS to get back past as Piastri admitted that he was “afraid” for 10 laps that he would lose the lead.

The two frontrunners impressively kept pace with each other for most of the race. Leclerc didn’t just stay less than a second behind for dozens of laps; he also inadvertently ending up copying the Aussie’s moves. A clip of the two skidding over the same kerb one after the other became one of the highlights of the weekend.

Plenty of love for Lewis Hamilton

The Mercedes racer didn’t have the greatest weekend, but nevertheless improved from a pit lane start to finish in P9. Even if he wasn’t overly pleased with the result, he received some heartwarming admiration from rookies Franco Colapinto and Ollie Bearman, both of whom grew up watching the former world champion.

READ MORE: ‘We’ve got to be realistic’ – Russell ‘surprised’ by Baku podium as Hamilton left ‘impressed’ by rookies

Despite scoring points in only his second race for Williams, Colapinto described speaking to Hamilton as “my best moment of the day” in an Instagram post, adding that it was “a dream come true to shake hands” with the Briton “after a race together”.

Bearman echoed the sentiment, writing: “It’s not every race weekend you get to battle it out with a 7 time World Champion. Thanks for the fight, Sir Lewis”.