Perez led Verstappen home after a tepid Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but his afternoon almost came to an end when he hit the outside wall on the entrance to Turn 15 on lap 34 .

The Mexican came away unscathed, but later admitted his error resulted in a hard hit to the front right corner of his Red Bull RB19.

“It was really hard,” he said of the hit. “I was a little bit lucky, especially that there wasn’t an explosion on the right front.”

From third, Perez quickly beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc before taking the lead when Verstappen pitted on lap 10, just before Nyck de Vries’ injured AlphaTauri’s safety car rolled out.

Perez benefited from the neutralization, making his only pit stop and maintaining the lead.

After the controls restarted, the Mexican drove with composure around the Baku city circuit, never under constant pressure from Verstappen.

“Today was really successful for us. We managed to stay on the DRS train, we managed to keep the pressure on Max,” Perez said.

“I think we had a better result on the first pit stop and it looked good from there.

“Then the safety car came and brought everyone together. So, it was another hard tyre race.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing, first place, celebrates on arrival at Parc Ferme

Photography: Andrew Ferraro / motorsport pictures

“I think we were pretty close. We pushed as far as we could today and we both hit the wall a few times while pushing.

“The way Max pushed me throughout the game was really tough, but we managed to keep him under control.”

Perez became Azerbaijan’s first repeat winner after also winning in Saturday’s sprint race, cutting the gap on Verstappen to six points after four games in 23 matches. Chase more firmly.

After dropping to third, Verstappen quickly passed Leclerc on the restart, but then began to struggle with the balance of the car and never came close to threatening his team-mate.

“Of course, the safety car was a bit unlucky and then I had to push again, I was trying to stay very close, trying to get into DRS,” he explained.

“So the tires were getting a bit overheated, trying to keep up.

“There’s also balance, and I’m always trying to be really consistent, so I’m playing around with the tools.

“And I think once I get that sorted, I’d say the last 10 laps were actually pretty good again, but it’s a bit too late.”