Damon Hill ‘loved’ Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc in sync moment during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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The Azerbaijan Grand Prix produced a tense final few laps as Charles Leclerc chased down Oscar Piastri for the victory.

The Ferrari driver lost the lead 20 laps into the race after McLaren pitted Oscar Piastri in reaction to Sergio Perez, who was close to pulling off an undercut before a bit of help from Lando Norris backing him up enabled the Australian to retain second.

Piastri made an overtake that Karun Chandhok described had ‘tremendous confidence’ on Leclerc into Turn 1, while the Australian himself admitted that it was “50/50” in the podium cooldown room.

Leclerc knew Piastri had initially taken a lot out of his tyres, so he piled the pressure in the ensuing laps, staying within a second of the McLaren and attempting a move for the lead on occasion.

The epic chase delivered some great moments between the pair as they raced hard, including one that stood out for former F1 driver and 1996 World Champion Damon Hill when speaking on X (formerly Twitter).

Damon Hill loved powerslide between Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc

As Leclerc piled the pressure on Piastri, the McLaren driver started to make a few minor mistakes including getting close to the Baku walls and power sliding out of corners.

After F1 posted a video of the slides, Hill commented on social media about how much he “loved” the moment in the race as it depicted two drivers going all-out for the win.

He added on Instagram: “An image that will go down in F1 history, as these young men make more of it.”

The current specification Pirelli tyres require a gentle build-up in temperature to avoid being overheated too early on in a stint, so sliding can often occur if that has happened too quickly.

As the Ferrari driver chased down Piastri in the dirty air, he started taking too much life out of the tyres and appeared to drop off at the end.

Charles Leclerc closes on the Drivers’ Championship

Leclerc and Ferrari made more indents on the championship leaders with their strong result on Sunday, despite the late crash between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.

Norris and Max Verstappen both had difficult races with the former having to recover from 15th on the grid, while the Dutchman struggled with car balance.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Leclerc is now just 78 points away from Verstappen while Ferrari is just 51 points away from new Constructors’ Championship leaders McLaren.

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has admitted that the team is no longer focused on the Constructors’ title, meaning Ferrari could leapfrog them in the final seven races if their form continues to improve.