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Leclerc’s fading tyres gave Piastri a little bit of respite in the closing laps, before a dramatic crash involving Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz brought out the Virtual Safety Car and confirmed the second Grand Prix win of his career.
Reflecting on the battle, Piastri said: “I tried at the start of the race to get in front but once I dropped out of DRS [range] I just didn’t have the pace. After the stop, I saw we were pretty close again and I felt like we had a little bit of extra grip and I had to go for it.
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the Azerbaijan GP as Piastri beats Leclerc while Perez and Sainz collide late on
“I knew that if I didn’t get past at the start of the stint, I was never going to get past, so I went for a pretty big lunge but managed to pull it off and then hang on for dear life for the next 35 laps.
“The last couple of laps, once [Leclerc] dropped out of DRS, were a little bit more relaxing, but there’s no such thing as a relaxing lap around here, so it was hard work. It definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career.”
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