Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri has admitted that he overtook Charles Leclerc at the start of the second stage despite the advice of his race engineer who called for tire protection.
The McLaren driver spoke about the moment that changed the balance of forces in his favor, Idman.biz reports.
"I saw half an opportunity after the pitstop and knew I had to try and take it. It's what won me the race. I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that (take the lead) in the first stint and completely cooked my tyres. So my engineer came on the radio and said, ‘let's not do that again’, basically. And I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside.”
At that point, I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to [suffer tyre] degradation was never going to happen. I thought we were just going to secure us P2.
If I didn't take that opportunity then I was never going to have another one, I think. Credit to Charles, he was incredibly fair. I think maybe he thought I was going to sail on into the run-off but I was pleasantly surprised that I actually made the corner. It was a high-risk, high-commitment move but that's what I needed to do to try and win the race."
At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Leclerc was second in Ferrari, and George Russell was third in Mercedes.
Idman.biz
