Australian F1 driver Oscar Piastri breaks down huge race moments in Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri has revealed how he ignored instructions from his race engineer to pull off the daring and precarious overtake that was to win him the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Revelling in what he called “probably the best win in my career” on Sunday, the young Australian F1 superstar smiled about the moment on the Baku street circuit when he went for broke with his lap-20 pass to surprise Ferrari’s race leader Charles Leclerc.

Piastri believed he had to make an attack swiftly in his McLaren after a pit-stop - but Tom Stallard urged caution over the radio, wanting the 23-year-old to be easy on his new tyres.

“I saw half an opportunity after the pitstop and knew I had to try and take it,” Piastri told reporters.

“I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that in the earlier part of the race and completely cooked my tyres. So, he 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...”

The rest was monumental. Piastri cut inside a clearly shocked Leclerc, then just avoided the wall when straightening up with the lead.

“Credit to Charles. He was incredibly fair. Maybe he thought I was going to sail on into the run-off, but I was pleasantly surprised I actually made the corner,” smiled Piastri.

He never lost the advantage, defending with remarkable skill and poise from Leclerc’s ever more desperate counter-attacks in the DRS range at that same turn for another 30 laps before the dirty air really did impact the Ferrari’s rear tyres.

“Trying to soak up that pressure for so long was incredibly tough. That ranks as probably my best win in my career,” shrugged Piastri, whose mum Nicole, on a rare visit to an overseas GP, was among the first in the paddock to give him a hug.

Other luminaries of the sport were left in awe at the display, with former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, a commentator for Sky Sports, hailing it “perfect”.

“It was a beautiful overtake. Leclerc didn’t see it coming and he surprised him, and after that Piastri was just fantastic, keeping the pressure under control, and his blocking was clean,” said the Canadian.

“For him, this was THE victory. His first one in Hungary was good, but this was the one he just mastered himself. He did the overtaking, he was quick afterwards and didn’t crack under pressure. It was perfect.”

Mark Webber, the nine-time grand prix winner who’s Piastri’s manager and mentor, added: “This was one of the best drives I’ve ever seen him pull off.

“Charles around here (in Baku) is absolutely magical, so to beat him around here was a pretty big deal. It was world-class to say the least.

“He’s arrived, he’ll keep his feet on the ground and he’ll keep working hard.”

As for his McLaren principal, it came as no surprise. “What brilliance in Oscar’s drive today,” enthused Andrea Stella.

“It was certainly the most stressful Sunday afternoon of his life - I hope he will have this kind of stress more frequently in the future.”