Oscar Piastri ignored a name for endurance from race engineer Tom Stallard earlier than making his race-winning lunge to overhaul Charles Leclerc for the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Piastri battled Leclerc exhausting within the opening laps of the race, believing clear air to be key to victory, however overused his medium tires within the course of, dropping him to five.9s adrift by the point he made his pit cease on lap 15. Solely Leclerc’s gradual laps into and out of pit lane introduced Piastri again into competition instantly after the Monegasque made his cease one lap later.
The Australian was implored to take a distinct tack together with his second probability. McLaren analyzed his used medium tires and located he’d overused them, and he’d need to be a lot gentler together with his new set of hards to get them the 36 laps to the checkered flag. Piastri gave that concept brief shrift, leaning closely on his tires for a late-braking overtake on lap 20 to take a lead he’d by no means relinquish.
“I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer as a result of I principally tried to try this within the first stint and utterly cooked my tires,” Piastri stated. “My engineer got here on the radio and stated, ‘Let’s not do this once more,’ principally, and I utterly ignored him the following lap and despatched it down the within.
“It’s what received me the race.”
Piastri stated he didn’t see the logic in taking part in a affected person sport in behind a automotive that was not less than a match for the McLaren.
“I feel at that time I felt like making an attempt to remain again and await Charles to deg was by no means going to occur,” he defined. “I believed he was simply going to safe us P2.
“An analogous alternative [came] within the first stint. I felt like on lap two or three I used to be simply inside DRS however didn’t absolutely capitalize on that chance.
“I acquired to the tip of the straight pondering, ‘If I had have carried out a few issues a bit in another way right here, I possibly had an opportunity.’ So once I had an analogous alternative after the pit cease, I needed to take it.
“[The move] was a high-risk, high-commitment … however that’s what I wanted to do to try to win the race, as a result of I wasn’t actually going to be that eager to complete second.”
He was unable to tug away from Leclerc as soon as in first place, with the Ferrari doggedly pursuing the lead.
“I knew that stepping into the lead was going to be, let’s say, 40 p.c of the job, however that hanging on to it was going to be 60 p.c, and I knew that I’d use the tires fairly closely to try to get in entrance and I knew what sort of influence that had within the first stint,” he stated.
“Simply making an attempt to maintain Charles behind was extremely traumatic. I couldn’t make a single mistake. I made a pair, however at a monitor like Baku it’s unattainable to be driving flat out and never make any. I used to be simply lucky that they weren’t sufficiently big that it price me.
“The entire 30 laps the place I used to be making an attempt to maintain Charles behind was extremely robust.
“I feel for me that needs to be probably the greatest races I’ve carried out.”
Victory is the most recent large end in a powerful run of kind for Piastri who’s the game’s highest scoring driver over the past 11 rounds. His 25 factors additionally helped propel McLaren to the lead of the constructors championship for the primary time greater than a decade.
“It’s not simply right down to me,” he stated. “We’ve had a automotive that’s been very fast and persistently fast in a variety of locations, and even when we’ve not essentially been the outright quickest in all places, we’ve been in with an opportunity in all places.
“Immediately was positively a type of days the place we weren’t essentially the quickest, however we had a automotive that would put us within the struggle. We had a pit cease that would put us within the struggle. We had some teamwork that put us within the struggle, and all of it managed to repay.
“I really feel like I’ve been driving effectively. It’s been clicking a bit extra for me this yr by way of the issues I wish to work on from final season. Mix that with a automotive that’s able to profitable, and outcomes like this are doable.”
