Why Oscar Piastri won’t serve Baku F1 jump start penalty in Singapore

Oscar Piastri will escape a grid drop at the Singapore Grand Prix despite failing to serve a jump start penalty in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Championship leader Piastri crashed out on the opening lap of Sunday’s race in Baku to compound an uncharacteristically sloppy weekend from the Australian, who has seen his championship lead cut to 25 points.

The race-ending accident came after Piastri had fallen to the very back of the field after jumping the start on what would become a disastrous opening lap.

Piastri was seen edging forwards before the lights went on, before stopping his McLaren which caused it to go into anti-stall.

The incident was investigated by the Baku stewards, who issued Piastri with a five-second time penalty.

However, the penalty went unserved due to Piastri crashing out.

Crucially for Piastri, this will not be converted into a grid penalty for the next race in Singapore.

F1’s sporting regulations state that if a driver is unable to serve a penalty because of being unclassified or a retirement then “the stewards may impose a grid place penalty on the driver at their next race”.

But the FIA’s stewards’ guidelines, which was published after the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this year, explains why Piastri will not have to carry the penalty onto the next round.

It states: “In cases where there is a single 5s penalty which a driver is unable to serve due to retirement, the Stewards will not convert that into a grid penalty for a subsequent race. However, if there is more than one penalty, the Stewards may convert the 5s (and other) penalties into a grid penalty.”

Fernando Alonso was also handed a five-second time penalty for jumping the start.

The Aston Martin driver accepted he had edged forward before the lights went out in reaction to Piastri rolling forward ahead of him.

Piastri only has himself to blame

Piastri admitted he only had himself to blame for the series of unusual errors.

"Certainly not my finest moment. I just anticipated the start too much. A silly, simple error really with that,” he told Sky Sports F1.

"The crash - just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. Clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.

“The grip level was low but I should know that. So, I’m certainly not blaming it on anything other than myself. Just didn’t make the judgement calls that I need to at the right time, and that’s obviously disappointing."