'Most Stressful Afternoon In My Life': Says Piastri After Winning His Second F1 Race
F1Monday, 16 September 2024 at 16:00
McLaren F1 driver Oscar Piastri suggested he has been through the most stressful afternoon in his life after winning the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri started the 17th round of the season at Baku City Circuit from the front row after qualifying in P2, and he managed to keep his position through the opening laps of the race.
Had it not been for his teammate Lando Norris, who helped him by slowing down Sergio Perez (who was in P3 and pitted earlier for undercut), the Australian might have lost his position on lap 16.
However, Norris held up the Red Bull Racing driver, and thanks to his help, Piastri was free to chase after Charles Leclerc in the lead.
The McLaren driver managed to catch up with Leclerc, and on lap 20, he performed an incredible overtake as he dived down the inside of the Ferrari driver from a huge distance. As reported by PlanetF1, Piastri told the media about the overtake:
"I saw, saw an opportunity, or half an opportunity after the pit stop, and knew I had to try and take it."
Oscar Piastri celebrating after winning the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
The 23-year-old also shared a funny story as his engineer specifically asked him not to try and go for such overtakes, but he did, and it paid off.
"I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer. I basically tried to do that [same overtake] in the first stint and completely cooked my tires, so my engineer came on the radio and said, you know, let's not do that again."
"And I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside."
Oscar Piastri also gave credit to Leclerc, whom he felt was very fair during all of their battles—and there were quite a few even later on, as the Astralian had to defend his position until the end of the race.
"Credit to Charles. He was incredibly fair. I think maybe he thought I was going to sail on into the runoff, but I was pleasantly surprised that I actually made the corner."
The 23-year-old McLaren F1 driver won his first race in Hungary. However, that did not feel as good as the one in Azerbaijan, which he marked the best in his career.
"For me, I think that ranks as probably the best win of my career, I would say. Trying to soak up that pressure for so long in that race, that was incredibly tough. That was probably the most stressful afternoon in my life."
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