'A chink in the armour': Oscar Piastri's Baku errors set up high-stakes Singapore GP showdown
Updated . First published at
Oscar Piastri is "very keen" to hit the track again at the Singapore Grand Prix as he looks to bounce back from a poor performance in Azerbaijan.
The championship leader's struggles began during qualifying, where a crash in Q3 forced him to start from ninth place on the grid.
His weekend then culminated in another crash on the opening lap of the feature race.
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The Australian jumped the race start before stalling on the grid, which caused him to fall to the back of the pack before the opening corner.
Oscar Piastri sits in his McLaren ahead of the 2025 Imola Grand Prix. LAT Images
His race ended soon after, when he locked up and crashed at turn five. He was the only driver to retire from the grand prix.
Piastri was handed a five-second penalty for the jump start. However, the penalty will not carry over to the next race in Singapore despite not having been served.
Despite not adding any points, Piastri tops the drivers' standings and is on course for his first world title with a 25-point advantage over McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
The Briton had a golden opportunity to gain ground in the pair's championship battle, but could only manage a seventh-place finish, narrowing Piastri's lead by six points.
Round 18 of the title fight lands in Singapore, where Norris showed his winning pace last season.
Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri stood on the podium at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. Gongora/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Singapore Grand Prix is renowned as one of the most physically demanding events on the calendar because of the intense heat and humidity, despite its night-time slot.
McLaren hopes that the circuit's challenging conditions will give them an edge over their rivals.
"I'm very keen to get back in the cockpit," Piastri said in the lead-up to the grand prix.
"On paper, and with the temperatures involved in Singapore, our car has been proven to be comfortable in the past
"With that in mind, I'm looking forward to a really positive weekend."
Piastri's best performance in Singapore came last season, where he secured a third-place finish behind Norris and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Former driver Jolyon Palmer believes Piastri's difficulty in Baku was the result of the intense pressure he is facing in the championship fight.
Oscar Piastri climbs out of his damaged McLaren after crashing during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Getty
"I think we saw, just purely, a chink in the armour," he told the F1 Nation podcast.
"We just saw a driver making a really basic human mistake. I can't see anything other than [that] he just got jittery.
"That's just pressure, it's jitters, and the rest of it was compounded by the first mistake."
After Baku, Palmer is concerned that the high-pressure nature of the Singapore circuit will make it difficult for Piastri to move past his mistakes.
"Normally, I would say park it and look ahead. The problem is that the next track is Singapore, so there're similar issues," he said.
"A street circuit again, if you make mistakes, you are going to find the barriers and be on the back foot. It will be punishing."
