Max Verstappen looked set to take victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, but a late tyre failure dashed those hopes with Sergio Perez noting it was shame Red Bull couldn't finish one-two. The Mexican took full advantage of the late chase to claim his second career victory. He even kept Lewis Hamilton at bay after the restart, with the Mercedes driver squandering his chance at a points scoring finish by running off at Turn 1. Nevertheless, Perez was happy to come home first. "I'm so, so happy for today," Perez told Sky Sport. "You know the race, normally Baku is pretty crazy. First of all I have to say I'm very sorry for Max because he had a tremendous race. He really deserved the win. "It would have been incredible to get that one-two for the team, but in the end it was a fantastic day for us. We were close to retiring the car, but luckily we managed to finish the race. It was difficult right until the end." After a slow start to the season, Perez' has improved in recent outings. He played a key role in keeping Hamilton behind throughout the race. "Lewis had strong pace throughout the race," Perez added. "We had a slow stop as well, the overcut came a bit closer to him. He pushed me from that lap onwards. "I had pressure from him at the beginning. I had a poor start so he was alongside me. I braked as late as I possibly could and he did the same, but it didn't work for him."
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