Sawtooth control using steerable electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) has been demonstrated in ASDEX Upgrade plasmas with a significant population of energetic ions in the plasma core and long uncontrolled sawtooth periods. The sawtooth period is found to be minimised when the ECCD resonance is swept to just inside the q = 1 surface. Sawtooth control using ECCD inside q = 1 avoids the triggering of performance-degrading neoclassical tearing modes, even at much higher pressure than required in the ITER baseline scenario. Operation at 25% higher normalised pressure has been achieved when only modest ECCD power is used for sawtooth control compared to identical discharges without sawtooth control when neo-classical tearing modes are triggered by the sawteeth. Numerical modelling suggests that the achieved driven current changes the local magnetic shear sufficiently to compensate for the stabilising influence of the energetic particles in the plasma core.