Perez took his first win for Red Bull in Baku in a chaotic aftern🍸oon that saw teammate Max Verstappen crash out due to🍌 a tyre failure.

The Mexican was ordered by his engineer to sto💯p out on track immediately after taking the chequered flag, indicating a technical issue was immin🌠ent.

Speaking after taking his second career victory, Perez said: “I am so, so happy for today. The race, normally Baku i🌄s pretty crazy. First of all, I have to say I am very sorry for Max because he did a tremendous race and he really deserved the win.

“It would have been incredible to get🐼 that 1-2 for the team but at the end, it is a fantastic day for us. We were close to retiring the car but luckily we managed to finish the race. It w📖as quite difficult all the way until the end.”

The race was red-flagged asꩵ a consequence of Verstappen’s shunt on the start-finish straight, forcing a second standing start💫.

Hamilton managed to get the jump on Perez but locked up both of his front tyres into Turn 1, handing the Red Bull driver the lead while Hami꧒lton w♎as forced to take to the escape road.

Explaining his race-long battle w𒉰ith Hamilton, Perez added: “He had pretty st꧅rong pace throughout the race. I think we had a bit of a slow stop as well so the overcut came a bit closer to him and he just pushed me from then onwards.

“I had the pressure from him pretty much since the beginning and then at the start, I had a poor start so he was alongsideౠ me but I was like ‘I am not going to miss it’, I broke as late as I possibly could and he did the same but it didn’t work for him. At least it’s a good day for the team.”

Perez’s first win of th💯e season moves him into third in the drivers’ championship.