Oscar Piastri shares why he was panicking on his way to Azerbaijan Grand Prix victory

Follow us on Google Discover

Oscar Piastri’s win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix came after a tense last few laps as he defended from Charles Leclerc.

The Ferrari driver piled the pressure on him throughout the final 20 laps of the race, after Oscar Piastri pulled off an impressive pass on him shortly after their pit stops.

Piastri took a lot of life out of his tyres early on in the second stint to catch Leclerc, which put him at risk of being undercut by Sergio Perez.

Teamwork from Lando Norris enabled Piastri to stay ahead of the Red Bull driver, which prompted the racing-winning manoeuvre that Karun Chandhok described had ‘tremendous confidence’.

Piastri has described why he was panicking when attempting to complete the move on the Ferrari driver when speaking on The Fast and the Curious podcast.

Oscar Piastri explains a ‘slight moment of panic’ when passing Charles Leclerc

Piastri stayed over half a second of Leclerc when they reached the DRS zone on the start/finish straight, which was lengthened by 100m ahead of the weekend.

Even with the pressure of defending from Leclerc in the upgraded Ferrari, the Australian admitted that he panicked when pulling off the overtake for the lead.

“I got into the DRS and used all of the battery and it got me just about close enough, that if I didn’t do it then it was never going to happen. I went for it, I felt in control the whole time,” said Piastri.

“There was a slight moment of panic when I realised that I was actually alongside. I was mostly under control and I looked at my dash hoping there was 10 laps to go and saw there was 35 to go! So that didn’t fill me with a whole bunch of confidence.”

Tom Stallard reveals what Oscar Piastri is doing ‘phenomenally well’ at McLaren

Piastri’s engineer, Tom Stallard made sure not to give Piastri a countdown to the finish of the race to enable him to stay focused under pressure.

Stallard said he was impressed by Piastri’s ability to ‘galvanise’ the McLaren team by knowing little bits of information about each team member.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Former McLaren driver and 2009 World Champion Jenson Button has also been impressed with Piastri’s ability to take the challenge to Norris this year.

Piastri is still in contention to win the Drivers’ Championship with six races left, although McLaren is likely to call on him to support Norris to preserve their lead in the Constructors’ over Red Bull.