Piastri ‘ignored’ team order in Leclerc overtake

Oscar Piastri has stated he ignored a team order when overtaking Charles Leclerc for the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver moved to the head of the field on lap 20 after making a move stick on Charles Leclerc into the first corner.

The move proved pivotal as Leclerc failed to re-pass Piastri in the remaining laps, with the latter securing his second career victory.

Having turned through his tyres in the opening stint after pushing for the lead, McLaren asked Piastri to take a more measured approach after his pit stop – however he quickly pounced on Leclerc to secure first place.

“It’s what won me the race,” Leclerc told media including RacingNews365. “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. And 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.”

Piastri detailed he applied fixes from a botched attempt earlier in the race to complete the overtake.

“I had a similar opportunity in the first stint,” he said. “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.”