Oscar Piastri crashes out of Azerbaijan qualifying to dent championship hopes

Oscar Piastri’s championship hopes may have taken a big hit, as the Australian has crashed out of Q3 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The championship leader ended his qualifying session in Baku in the barriers, bringing out a record-breaking sixth red flag during what was supposed to be an hour-long shoot-out.

Oscar Piastri brings out the red flags in Azerbaijan

There were multiple red flags during the qualifying session in Baku, with Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Ollie Bearman, and Charles Leclerc crashing their cars in separate incidents across Q1, Q2, and the early stages of Q3.

Heading into the final critical minutes of Q3, Piastri made his first significant error of his championship tilt since sliding off in the rain in Melbourne, as he binned his McLaren MCL39.

Negotiating Turn 3, Piastri didn’t make the apex and slid straight on into the barriers to knock the right-front corners off his car.

Thumping the steering wheel in frustration, Piastri was placed sixth in the qualifying order but, with over three minutes left in the session, is likely to fall further back in the top 10 – assuming his car is repairable without breaking parc ferme conditions.

Returning to the pits, Piastri’s initial explanation, without reviewing the data, was that he simply braked too late for the corner, holding his hands up for what looks like a simple driver error.

Should McLaren need to make any changes during repairs, he could yet end up starting from the pitlane, which could prove impactful to his championship hopes as the Australian is 27 points clear of McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship.

“Just ultimately, I think I tried a bit too hard,” Piastri said after the session.

“I haven’t actually looked at what I did differently, because I didn’t feel like I did that much differently. But a tiny bit can make a massive difference.

“So, yeah, I’m obviously disappointed with how I performed.

“There was a bit of rain around, yes, so I don’t know if that contributed. I don’t know if I got a gust of wind, I don’t know.

“But, at the moment, I’ve never been one to blame it on something other than myself, and that’s what I’m going to stick with until I see something that tells me otherwise.”

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The Australian driver said he believed the track conditions to be amongst the trickiest the drivers had experienced all season.

“Having it this windy is very tough,” he said.

“You add in the compounds, I think everyone expected the medium to be a good step better.

“In the end, I don’t really think it was. So yeah, a bit of an interesting dynamic from that side as well. But you add in wind, tyre uncertainty, a little bit of rain, cold conditions on a street track like this, and stuff is going to happen as you see.”

With Norris ultimately failing to capitalise on his teammate’s misfortune as he made an error to finish in seventh to Piastri’s, at present, 10th-place grid slot, he said that he was more disappointed with the fact he didn’t perform to the best of his abilities himself.

“You could argue that it was a good opportunity to make progress,” he said.

“But what’s done is done, and I’ll try and claw back some points tomorrow.

Piastri bringing out the red flags means the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix sets a new record for the most red flags during a single qualifying session.

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