{"id":442005,"date":"2025-09-21T23:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442005\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T23:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:43:13","slug":"oscar-piastri-handed-massive-boost-for-singapore-gp-as-aussie-cashes-in-on-rule-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442005\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri handed massive boost for Singapore GP as Aussie cashes in on rule change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri<\/strong><\/a> says ‘silly’ errors on his part were behind a disastrous showing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he jumped the start and stalled, before crashing out on the opening lap. But Australia’s Formula One championship leader has been handed a massive boost after escaping a grid penalty for the upcoming Singapore GP.<\/p>\n

Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen<\/strong><\/a> drove a masterful race to win from pole, with George Russell and Carlos Sainz Jr claiming the minor podium places. Fortunately for Piastri – in his own quest for a world title – McLaren teammate Lando Norris couldn’t take full advantage of the Aussie’s misfortune as he finished seventh.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri has escaped a grid penalty for the next race at the Singapore GP after he jumped the start before crashing out at the Azerbaijan GP. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

That sees Norris close the gap to 25 points in the standings after Piastri went into the race with a 31-point lead. And it came after a weekend to forget Piastri after the Aussie driver crashed in qualifying, before a horror start saw him drop him from ninth on the grid to last. He then crashed out on Turn 5 of the opening lap while trying to make up ground, and admitted it was no one’s fault but his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly not my finest moment. I just anticipated the start too much. A silly, simple error really with that,\u201d Piastri told Sky Sports. \u201cThe crash – just didn\u2019t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. Clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.<\/p>\n

Piastri’s brilliant career has been marked so far by an absence of such mistakes and he couldn’t hide his despair afterwards. “I think I just braked a little bit late. I have not seen any data or anything, but it’s normally what happens when you end up locking your brake,” he sighed. “So, yeah, just disappointing. Obviously, I felt like the car was in a good place and it’s a disappointing way to end.”<\/p>\n

Piastri seemed rattled after his false start and conceded that it probably affected his judgement. \u201cThe grip level was low but I should know that. So, I\u2019m certainly not blaming it on anything other than myself,” he added. “I just didn\u2019t make the judgement calls that I need to at the right time, and that\u2019s obviously disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri escapes grid penalty for Singapore GP<\/p>\n

The crash signalled the first time in 43 races that Piastri had failed to grab points, such has been his consistency since taking the seat at McLaren. Things could have been even worse, with Piastri initially facing a potential grid penalty for the next race at the Singapore GP because he avoided a five-second penalty for jumping the start.<\/p>\n

Stewards investigated the incident and decided Piastri would be given a five-second penalty. But because he was out of the race, there were fears that the penalty would be converted into a grid penalty for the next race in Singapore.<\/p>\n

\"Seen<\/p>\n

McLaren’s Aussie superstar Oscar Piastri has escaped a grid penalty for the next race after his disaster at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

However, a change in regulations at the start of this year means the Aussie has been handed a major reprieve. FIA\u2019s stewards\u2019 guidelines document states that one-off offences like Piastri\u2019s will not be converted into grid penalties, but if it happens again, Piastri will not be so lucky.<\/p>\n

Article 8 in the \u201cImportant Notes\u201d section of the penalty guidelines states: \u201cIn cases where there is a single 5s penalty which a driver is unable to serve due to retirement, the Stewards will not convert that into a grid penalty for a subsequent race. However, if there is more than one penalty, the Stewards may convert the 5s (and other) penalties into a grid penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

with AAP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri says ‘silly’ errors on his part were behind a disastrous showing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[146369,4199,707,4200,149424,1712,130103,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-442005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-azerbaijan-grand-prix","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-grid-penalty","13":"tag-oscar-piastri","14":"tag-singapore-gp","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115244945933519411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}