Oscar Piastri says he should have known better than misjudged his grip level on the opening lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on his way to the five-turn barrier.
Piastri completed his distinctive weekend mistake by jumping the start and falling behind the field by the first turn. To slice the way back towards the point, he was trapped in turn 5 and plowed into the wall.
The double error came after he crashed from qualifying without setting time in the third quarter, placing 9th in the season on the grid.
The race-end crash came while trying to pass Esteban Ocon outside the left-handed turn. He misjudged the brake point. Perhaps as a result of Nico Halkenberg before him, he brakes too deeply into the corner, but when the Germans got through, Piastri was traveling too quickly to correct his mistake.
“I think we just misjudged the grip level in the end,” he said. “Maybe a lot of that comes from dirty air, but I know better than that you expect a lack of grip.
“I think Wright’s misjudgment is just something that’s too much trying to predict. A simple error, then an anti-stoll, and then it went downhill.
“I certainly haven’t criticized it against anything else. It was two simple errors for me today.”
The uncharacteristic mistake Rittany was supposed to be vulnerable to Piastri’s big point swings against him, but teammate and chief title rival Randnoris finished seventh in seventh place, cutting the deficit to just six points and down to 25 points.
However, the limited damage was limited to Piastri’s comfort, but he was at a loss to explain why his otherwise clean season record was blotted so comprehensively in one round.
“There was nothing different (about this weekend),” he said. “It depends on how you want to see it, but for me, if I feel like I’m in a completely different headspace, it’s easy to blame it and it’s a problem to correct it, but this weekend felt like the other weekend.
“Unfortunately, there are too many mistakes from start to finish, and every session has been bothering, so trying to clean it is important for the future.
“I rarely have so many execution errors, so I’m very focused on putting it behind me. I’d be much more worried because these errors were trying to make up for the time or were trying to do something like that.
The Australian also embraced the belief that he was quick in Baku, but was unable to demonstrate it.
“You’re never going to feel great after a weekend like this, but in the end I felt that the pace this weekend was still good,” he said. “I’ve been bounced back this weekend and trying to perform as best I can, and when I get back to where I know I can, I know I’ll be fine.
