Oscar Piastri reflected after the race on his overtake of Charles Leclerc during the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The overtake came immediately after Piastri's race engineer had urged him to be cautious with his new tires.

Piastri made the race-winning move on lap 20, shortly after the pit stop. From that moment, he and Leclerc engaged in a fierce battle, as both drivers struggled through a grueling stint on hard tires. In the cooldown room before the podium ceremony, Piastri admitted to Leclerc that he had a 50-50 chance of crashing into the Turn 1 wall during the lunge.

Later, Piastri explained why he felt the risky pass was a "now or never" moment, admitting that he had declined advice from his race engineer Tom Stallard, who had told him to be gentle on his new tires compared to his aggressive stint on mediums.

"I spotted a half-chance after the pit stop and knew I had to go for it," Piastri said.

"That timing won me the race. I did feel a bit bad for my engineer because I’d already overcooked my tires in the first stint. So, when he said, 'let’s not do that again,' I basically ignored him on the next lap and went for it down the inside. If I hadn’t, I don’t think I would have had another opportunity. Credit to Charles—he was very fair. Maybe he thought I’d miss the corner, but I was pleasantly surprised I made it."

Piastri's victory wasn’t secured by the pass alone, as he then endured over 30 laps of intense pressure from Leclerc, who kept trying to retake the lead. Piastri defended skillfully, eventually pulling out of DRS range in the closing laps. "Soaking up that pressure for so long was incredibly tough," Piastri acknowledged.

"Getting into the lead was about 40% of the job, but holding onto it was the other 60%. I knew I’d pushed the tires hard to get ahead, and I was worried it might come back to haunt me like it did in the first stint. I hoped the clean air would help me stay in front.

"It did, to an extent, but then you lose a lot of time with DRS, so keeping Charles behind was stressful. I couldn’t afford a single mistake. I made a few, but in Baku, it’s impossible to be flat out and not make any.

"Luckily, none of them were big enough to cost me. This has to be one of the best races I’ve ever done."