Oscar Piastri finds “silver lining” after “simple mistakes” led to Azerbaijan GP disaster

Oscar Piastri blamed “simple lapses in judgement” for his error-strewn Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend in Baku.

Piastri crashed out on the opening lap of Sunday’s race at the Baku City Circuit.

It was a horrific start for Piastri after he moved before the start lights.

His car then went into anti-stall, causing him to drop to the back of the pack.

In a bid to make up ground, Piastri carried too much speed at Turn 7, locked up, and ran into the barriers.

It put Piastri out of the race, capping off an awful weekend for the F1 championship leader

Reflecting on his jump start, Piastri said: “Certainly not my finest moment. Just anticipated the start too much. Silly, simple error really. The crash just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have.

“Clearly, I went into the corner way too hot and that was that.”

Addressing his race-ending crash, Piastri explained: “Potentially. The grip level was low but I should know that. I am certainly not blaming it on anything but myself.

“I didn’t make the judgement calls that I needed to make at the right time and that’s obviously disappointing.”

It was a messy weekend for Piastri overall.

He brushed the barriers in FP2, sustaining damage as a result.

Piastri then locked up heavily at Turn 3, crashing out in Q3, which left him down in ninth.

The Australian conceded it was a “rough weekend” for his mechanics.

“More or less. Friday was a tough day. Saturday, the potential was very good,” he added.

“I had a lot of sequences or sectors that were incredibly strong and just never got it all together. Qualifying yesterday, it was what it was. Today, more silly mistakes. It was certainly a messy weekend for sure. 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.

“The fact that there are just simple lapses in judgement is obviously not a position that I want to be in and not the position it puts the mechanics in. It’s been a rough weekend for them. If I am trying to find a silver lining then I suppose I have that.”

Piastri let off the hook

While Piastri wasn’t able to add to his points tally, his poor weekend went unpunished.

Teammate Lando Norris could only finish seventh, meaning Piastri’s lead has only been reduced by seven points.

Piastri refused to get drawn into what happened with Norris - and he still holds a significant lead with seven rounds to go.

“That I guess is what it is. I am not too concerned about that,” he explained.

“For me, I am solely focused on myself and what I can do to improve. There’s still a long way to go. If you have good or bad weekends, the championship is far from over. That’s what I am focused on.”