Oscar Piastri’s Baku ends in the barriers after false start — title leader out on Lap 1
Oscar Piastri’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix lasted six corners. The championship leader’s McLaren snapped into the wall at Turn 6 on the opening lap in Baku, ending his Sunday before it properly began and throwing a grenade into the title picture.
Starting ninth, Piastri appeared to jump the start and then hustled to recover the lost momentum through the early sequence of 90-degree turns. It all came unstuck at Turn 6. The MCL-whatever designation won’t matter much in the garage right now — the right-hand side paid the price as he clouted the wall and parked up, out on the spot.
For a driver who’s been carving a season built on clean execution and sharp racecraft, it was a rare lapse with a costly consequence. A false start typically means a heavy-handed penalty from the stewards, but retirement renders that academic. Instead the hurt comes in championship currency: zero points, and a wide-open door for anyone chasing orange this year.
There’s an irony to it, too. Baku’s a place where patience counts more than bravado, the circuit punishing even tiny missteps with narrow walls and awkward angles. Piastri never got the chance to let the race come to him. One jump, one snap, one thud — done.
McLaren will be tallying the damage and working through the post-mortem. The team’s pit wall had been in a sweet rhythm lately, and Piastri’s confidence has looked bulletproof across 2025. Days like this are the reset button nobody wants, especially at a street circuit that always offers points to the survivors.
The bigger story is what this means for the table. As the leader coming into Baku, Piastri’s early exit turns the spotlight on the usual suspects behind him. Street races have a way of rewriting weekends with a well-timed Safety Car or a clean escape through the chaos — and without Piastri in the mix, the calculus shifts for everyone.
We’ll wait on word from the stewards regarding the start procedure and any formal ruling, though it’s unlikely to move the needle now. What matters most is the bruise on McLaren’s campaign and how quickly both driver and team can brush it off before the next round.
For now, the headline writes itself: the championship leader is out, Baku bites again, and the title race just found a plot twist on Lap 1.
Updates to follow as we get them from McLaren and race control.
