Formula One Perez turns up the heat on Verstappen

SERGIO Perez drove a consummate race, with help from the safety car, to beat Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen and win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Perez, pictured, and Verstappen fought a long, flat out battle after the Mexican leapfrogged ahead by being able to save time by making his pit stop under the safety car.

Perez had Verstappen’s measure, holding him at just more than a second behind for a long time before beginning to edge further ahead in the closing stages, and his second win of the year reduced the Dutchman’s championship lead to six points.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc - who started the race from pole, was soon dispatched by both Red Bulls after the start, and by Verstappen for a second time after the safetycar period - won a tight battle with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for the final podium position.

It was a much-needed fillip for Leclerc and Ferrari after a disappointing and difficult start to the season.

The Monegasque’s team-mate Carlos

Sainz took fifth, succeeding in holding off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, which dropped out of the top 10 after the safety car.

The race result may have turned on the timing of the safety car period and how it intersected with the pit strategies of the leading teams.

Verstappen had passed Leclerc for the lead at the start of lap three, as soon as the DRS overtaking aid was made available.

Perez followed him past a couple of laps later and began to close in on Verstappen, reducing the lead from a second, to 0.8secs, to 0.6secs on consecutive laps as the world champion began to struggle with tyre wear. Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres on lap 10, just before Alpha Tauri driver Nyck de Vries clouted the inside wall at Turn Five, breaking his front suspension and bringing his car to a halt in the run-off area at Turn Six.

The safety car was deployed and that enabled the rest of the frontrunners to pit - a stop under caution takes about half the 21 seconds of one under racing conditions and Perez emerged in the lead, with Leclerc also jumping back ahead of Verstappen.

The Dutchman passed Leclerc within three corners of the restart but Perez was able to hold him at just over a second behind, preventing Verstappen benefiting from the lap-time advantage of the DRS.

It was a tense fight as they circulated like that until just after half distance, when Perez began to creep further ahead, extending his lead to three seconds or so, and again holding it there.

Verstappen tried to come back at him, but Perez had the pace he needed and the win - arguably the best of his career - was secured.

Bristol-born Lando Norris was ninth in his McLaren.