Piastri hanging on ‘for dear life’ in Leclerc scrap

Oscar Piastri has described he was clinging on “for dear life” during his fight with Charles Leclerc for the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Leclerc looked comfortable out front in the opening stint of the race as he pulled a gap over Piastri after starting from pole position.

However, Piastri made an overtake stick into Turn 1 following the pit stop phase of the race as he went in search of a second career win.

“Once I dropped out of DRS, I just didn’t have the pace,” Piastri reflected. “After the stop, I saw we were pretty close again and I felt like we had a little bit of extra grip.

“I had to go for it, because I knew that if I didn’t get past, I was never going to get past.”

Leclerc attempted to get back ahead of the McLaren driver on several occasions but couldn’t consolidate himself in front of Piastri.

Piastri held on to take his second career win, which he described as one the best races of his career.

“I went for a pretty big lunge, but managed to pull it off and then hung on for dear life for the next 35 laps,” he said.

“The last couple of laps, once he 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.

“I think that definitely goes down as one of my better races in my career.”