Key moment that caught Oscar Piastri out pinpointed as errors scrutinised

A key moment in Oscar Piastri’s disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been pinpointed.

Piastri crashed out of Sunday’s race in Baku to compound an uncharacteristically error-strewn weekend for the Australian, who saw his championship lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris cut to 25 points.

Having crashed in qualifying, a jump start saw Piastri fall from ninth on the grid to the very back of the pack. In his attempts to make up ground, Piastri locked up and went straight on at Turn 5 on the opening lap.

Piastri’s nightmare first lap was reviewed by former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Anthony Davidson.

“I can’t remember the last time that Oscar Piastri made so many mistakes during the course of a weekend, but like [Andrea] Stella was saying, hopefully it’s all accumulated in this one weekend,” Davidson said.

“There’s that jump, stops, anti-stall. The anti-stall message is brief on his dash. He would have felt that immediately as you release the clutch and the car doesn’t go anywhere and the engine just free-revs, momentarily. The driver then has to re-press the clutch. You pull the clutch back in and give it another go.

“But the car jumps violently trying to get back in as you are not holding the proper revs anymore. And that’s why he ends up losing so many positions. He would have definitely got that five-second penalty on top of that.

“It didn’t put him off initially, he was quick to start making positions again. He took it easy through Turn 2 on these cold tyres at the start of the race. He was up to speed by the time we get to Turn 3 and getting past Albon in the Williams straight away into that corner.

“Then he’s on the attack with Gasly as well, picks off another position there. Round the outside of Turn 4 he goes, you’ve got the Haas there of Ocon and he slots in behind him.”

Did Nico Hulkenberg put Oscar Piastri off?

“This is where it all goes wrong in Turn 5,” Davidson continued.

“What I believe happens here is that he’s got Hulkenberg in front of him, trying to make a move around the outside of one of the Haas drivers. I think it in a way goeds Piastri into thinking ‘that’s where I can brake’. But Hulkenberg runs wide himself, very wide actually.

“To give Oscar some credit here and some let-off, I think he’s just following in another driver that is also going quite deep. You judge the gap between yourself and the other car and I think that’s what’s caught him out here and why he’s ultimately ended up in the barriers.

“I think if the car in front of him, Hulkenberg, had been a bit easier on the brakes, naturally it would have made Oscar brake a bit earlier as well. But I’m giving him excuses.

“The calibre that he is as a driver, leading the world championship, as difficult as this is, you shouldn’t really be expecting mistakes like that when you are at his level. So a really disappointing weekend.”