Sergio Perez has kept the pressure on Championship leader Max Verstappen with victory in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Mexican boosted his points total by prevailing in Saturday's Sprint race, but the expectation was that Red Bull teammate Verstappen would turn the tables in the showpiece race.
Instead, Verstappen was the major loser during an early safety car, and he was unable to overtake Perez for the remainder of the race on the street circuit.
Perez emerged victorious two seconds, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc doing enough for the final podium spot despite being 21 seconds behind the winner after initially starting on pole.
Speaking after the race, Perez said: "It really worked out today for us we managed to keep the pressure on Max which I think we had a better deg on that first stint.
Six points separate Max and Checo after Baku 👀#AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/MugPSKZhj5
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 30, 2023
"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.
"I think it was very close between us, we pushed to the maximum today, we both clipped the walls a few times, we were pushing out there, the way Max pushed me throughout the race was really hard but we managed to keep him under control."
Verstappen still holds a six-point lead in the title race after four Grand Prixs, while Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso remains in third position having finished in fourth place.
Carlos Sainz Jr and Lewis Hamilton were fifth and sixth in the Ferrari and Mercedes respectively, the latter 14 points ahead of the former in the standings in fourth.
McLaren's Lance Stroll claimed seventh ahead of George Russell, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda who completed the top 10.
