What dry Oscar Piastri said in cooldown room about dramatic Perez v Sainz crash

Oscar Piastri beat Charles Leclerc to the chequered flag in Baku

After Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were both handed a warning on Friday and Saturday in Baku as they got in each other’s way, they “finally finished the job” in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

That was Oscar Piastri’s dry response to their Lap 50 crash as they raced to join the McLaren driver on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix podium.

Oscar Piastri react to dramatic Sainz/Perez crash in Baku

Sainz and Perez had a testy weekend on track against one another with Sainz handed a warning for blocking Perez in Friday’s FP2 before the Red Bull driver received the same punishment for a similar offence in final practice.

But while a few choice words were uttered in those moments, it was nothing compared to what was said as they crashed on the penultimate lap of Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Racing Charles Leclerc, whose rear tyres had fallen off the cliff, Perez challenged him for second only to be rebuffed, which opened the door for Sainz to attack and pass the Mexican driver.

But as Perez fought back and began to draw alongside him, his front right slightly ahead of Sainz’s rear left, the Spaniard moved to the left and they collided at speed on the run down to Turn 3.

Both cars ended in the barrier, bringing out the VSC with Piastri cruising to the chequered flag as he lapped up his second Grand Prix win with Leclerc finishing second.

Sitting with George Russell in the cooldown room to catch their breath, and the highlights of the Grand Prix, the trio issued a collective gasp of “Ooohhhhh!” as they saw the crash.

Piastri, rather dryly, summed it up: “They have not been great friends this weekend. That’s the third time they’ve nearly, well… they finally finished the job.”

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Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc discuss race-winning battle

The Perez/Sainz battle may have ended in tears and destroyed bodywork, but earlier in the race – and at least six if not seven times – Piastri and Leclerc put on a masterclass in how to race cleanly.

As Leclerc hounded Piastri for the lead, not giving up as he tried to break his Baku curse, the McLaren driver defended like a pro.

Piastri, however, admitted it was touch-and-go sometimes.

“To be honest, when I hit the brakes I was like ‘there is a 50/50 chance I make this corner or not,” he said.

Leclerc replied: “Yeah I just braked the way I was breaking normally and I saw you going in and thought ‘he’s not’ going to release the brakes’ and then I thought ‘I’ll just let him take the DRS and try to overtake you’ – but that never happened!”

“To be honest, there was about 10 laps where I thought that was going to happen so I was pretty afraid,” Piastri admitted. “But once I got clean air, I thought ‘maybe the lap will be a bit easier now’.”

Piastri was left in a bit of pain, asking his rivals if their backs were “destroyed”.

Leclerc was okay, but Russell had a different complaint: “Ermmm…my feet hurt from pushing the gas.”

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