Oscar Piastri OUT of Azerbaijan GP after shocking Lap 1 crash

The F1 Championship leader Oscar Piastri is out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after crashing during the opening lap of the race in Baku.

In an uncharacteristically mistake-filled race start, the McLaren driver began in ninth but committed a clear false start as he moved out of his grid box before the lights had gone out.

Looking to make up for positions he lost, Piastri attempted an overtake of Haas’ Esteban Ocon at Turn 5 but found moving off the racing line resulted in a catastrophic loss of grip and he was a passenger as his car went into the wall.

To make Piastri’s afternoon worse, the stewards handed him a five-second penalty for jumping the start which could be translated into a grid penalty at the next race in Singapore.

Article 54.3 of Sporting Regulations says: If any of the four (4) penalties above are imposed upon a driver, and that driver is unable to serve the penalty due to being unclassified in the sprint session or the race in the case of a) or b) or due to retirement from the sprint session or the race in the case of c) or d), the stewards may impose a grid place penalty on the driver at their next race.

The crash was the final act of what has been an awful weekend for Piastri which also saw him crash in qualifying on Saturday and hand his title rival Lando Norris a huge opportunity.

Heading into the weekend, Piastri held a 31-point lead at the top of the table but his early exit means Norris could close that to six should he win the race.

A saving grace for Piastri is that Norris also started low on the grid in seventh and did not make up significant ground in the opening lap.