The radio message Piastri “ignored” to win Baku’s three-way fight thriller

After the McLaren team orders controversy that clouded his first Grand Prix victory in Hungary, Oscar Piastri seized his second with a superb pass on Charles Leclerc during a thrilling race on the streets of Azerbaijan. His ambush of the polesitter's Ferrari was made all the more dramatic for a radio message that went unheeded shortly beforehand

Race engineer Tom Stallard provided Oscar Piastri with some sage advice at the start of his hard-tyre stint, based on the findings of his discarded medium-compound Pirelli tyres. Piastri, who had been stuck in Charles Leclerc's wake among the opening quintet of tours around the streets of Baku, was about to find himself behind once again when the Ferrari driver called in a lap later than the Australian's 15th-lap service.

"The first stint, you damaged the tyres attacking Leclerc," Stallard informed his young charge. "Let's be smart here."

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.