Sergio Perez admitted that a mistake at Turn 15 on his way to winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix almost cost him victory. The Mexican managed to get the lead of the race when the Safety Car came out in the opening stages of the race for Nyck de Vries, who stopped on track having hit the wall and damaged his suspension. Red Bull had already pitted Max Verstappen at this stage, but the advantage of staying out and pitting the lap when the Safety Car came out enabled Perez to stay in the lead. From there he managed the gap to Verstappen, with the pair pushing each other throughout the race and the Mexican nearly making a costly mistake towards the end when he clipped his front-right tyre on the wall. "I think it was very close between us, we pushed to the maximum today," said Perez. "We both hit the wall a few times, so we were pushing out there. "The way Max pushed me through all through the race was really hard, but we managed to keep him under control."
Perez: Better tyre deg on the first stint
Perez says the team was able to manage the tyre degradation in the opening stages, which enabled him to stay out for longer and take advantage of the Safety Car. "It really worked out today for us," added Perez. "We managed to stay in the DRS train and we managed to keep the pressure on Max, which I think we had better [tyre] deg on that first stint. "It was looking good already from that side. Then the Safety Car came and it bunched everyone up, so it was again another race on the Hard tyres."
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