RACING LINES
Damien Smith
Championship leader Piastri lasted just six corners in Baku race
These are uncharted waters for Oscar Piastri. The 24-year-old Australian has seven races, starting with the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend, to claim his sport’s ultimate prize and join Jack Brabham and Alan Jones as his nation’s third Formula 1 world champion. He will probably manage it, but a strangely off-colour performance last time out in Azerbaijan has raised the first serious question of his otherwise impressively ice-cold temperament. He will be planning on answering it quickly and decisively under the lights of the spectacular Marina Bay night race this Sunday.
On the streets of Baku, an uncharacteristic error in qualifying put Piastri on the back foot. Still, it could have been worse than ninth on the grid, especially as McLaren team-mate and title rival Lando Norris qualified only two places ahead of him. But when Piastri botched his start, ran last, then slithered into a tyre barrier on the opening lap, for the first time this year he looked a long way short of world champion material.