World championship leader Oscar Piastri’s horror Azerbaijan Grand Prix was even worse than anybody thought. The Australian started Sunday’s race in ninth place after a disastrous display in qualifying on Saturday, and his fortunes failed to improve.
Piastri endured a nightmare start to the race when the lights went out. He jumped the start, slowed down, and then eventually got away again. That turn of events led to Piastri—who started the day 31 points clear at the top of the drivers’ standings—dropping all the way back to last place.
As he approached the fifth corner of the tight street circuit in Baku, the McLaren driver locked up and shunted straight into the barriers, bringing his race to a premature end. The crash also ended his remarkable 34-race streak of finishing Grand Prix events and handed his teammate Lando Norris a huge opportunity to make up some ground in the title race.
Photos have now emerged showing a stony-faced Piastri being forced to walk back to the pits alone after the crash. One F1 fan posted, “The hardest walk of his career.” Another commented, “Poor Oscar, that really is a walk of shame.” A third quipped, “Could have called an Uber.”
Piastri appeared frustrated when talking to the press following the event, blaming “silly mistakes.”
“It certainly was not my finest moment,” he told Sky Sports F1. “I just anticipated the start too much, and it was a silly, simple error with that. Then, the crash—I just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. I clearly went into the corner way too hot, and that was that.”
He didn’t mince his words when assessing his performance over the course of the weekend.
“Just more silly mistakes,” he added. “It was certainly a messy weekend for sure, but I would be more concerned if I was slow and trying to make up for it that way and having these errors because of that. But the fact that they’re just simple lapses in judgement… It’s not a position I want to be in or to put the mechanics in, because it has been a rough weekend for them. If I’m trying to find a silver lining, at least I have that.”
With his first world title looming on the horizon, Piastri wasn’t too worried about the gap between himself and Norris reducing to just 25 points.
“I’m not too concerned about that,” he said. “I’m solely focused on myself and what I can do to improve. There’s still a long way to go, and if you have good or bad weekends, the championship is far from over.”
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