Charles Leclerc has dedicated his dominant win in the Azerbaijan Formula 2 feature race to his late father, who passed away in the week.

The Monegasque driver took an emotional pole position on Friday to put himself in the best possible grid slot for an assault at victory in the first race of the weekend.

Leclerc duly delivered, taking his third win of the season and extending his lead in the championship to 28 points over nearest rival Oliver Rowland.

Speaking after the race, the Prema Racing driver took time to remember the man most influential in his route up the motorsport ladder.

“I’m very, very, very happy,” said the 19-year-old. “It’s good points for the championship also, and I’ve said it many times before but I’ll never stop saying thanks to my father for everything he did for me, and I dedicate this win to him.”

It may have looked like a controlled race from the front for Leclerc, but it was anything but as he fought to maintain the gap to the Rapax of Nyck de Vries behind him and was forced to push hard to keep the lead.

“I didn’t know if he [de Vries] was keeping the tyres for the end or pushing, so I was trying to push as much as possible while managing my tyres also, and then it was a bit harder to manage the gap, so it didn’t feel that easy! I was pushing a lot, but it went good.”

Leclerc was also relieved to hold station at the safety car restarts, admitting the long straights left him vulnerable to attack from behind.

“The safety cars here are quite bad because the straight is so long, so it is quite hard to manage the people behind, especially when you are in first position.

“The first safety car was quite hard to manage, but in the end it went well: I had a good jump and … oh my God, who was second? I’ve forgotten everything! But I did a good restart, it was manageable but quite difficult!”

Leclerc will start tomorrow’s sprint race from eighth place due to the reverse grid rule, while Ralph Boschung will lead the field away from pole.