Oscar Piastri ignored race engineer to make race-winning overtake

Oscar Piastri has revealed he ignored his race engineer’s advice to pull off his race-winning overtake on Charles Leclerc in the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver pulled off an audacious pass on Leclerc to snatch the lead on Lap 20 of Sunday’s race in Baku by diving down the inside of the Ferrari at Turn 1.

Piastri admitted he went against the advice of his race engineer Tom Stallard to get the move - which ultimately secured his second grand prix victory - done.

“I saw half an opportunity after the pitstop and knew I had to try and take it," Piastri said. "[The timing is] what won me the race,” the 23-year-old Australian explained.

“I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that 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.

“I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside. I think at that point, you know, I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to deg was never going to happen. I thought we was just going to secure us P2.

“I had a similar opportunity in the first stint. I felt like on lap two or three, I was, I think, just within DRS, but didn't fully capitalise on that opportunity. And I got to the end of the straight thinking ‘if I had have done a couple of things a bit differently here, I maybe had a chance’.

“So when I had a similar opportunity after the pit stop, I had to take it. And yeah, I wouldn't be sat here without that.”

Piastri did not believe he would get another chance to overtake Leclerc if he did not pull off the move when he did.

“It was the only thing I had. If I didn't take that opportunity then I was never going to have another one I think,” he added.

“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 because I wasn't really going to be that keen to finish second. So I had to try.”