Oscar Piastri sends six-word message to Lando Norris as 'silver lining' comes from crash

Oscar Piastri declared 'the championship is far from over' after crashing out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday. The McLaren driver also took a 'silver lining' from the fact that his mistakes during the Baku weekend came from 'simple lapses in judgement', rather than pushing to find pace that was not there.

Piastri went into Round 17 of the 2025 campaign with a 31-point advantage over team-mate and title rival Lando Norris, but the Australian was unable to stretch his lead in Baku. He crashed during the closing stages of qualifying on Saturday without a lap time on the board, setting him up for a P9 grid slot on Sunday. Then, in the race, things rapidly came apart for the 24-year-old.

Just before the lights went out for the Azerbaijan GP, Piastri jumped the start. His McLaren then went into anti-stall, meaning that, after the rest of the field flashed by, he went into the first run of corners at the back of the field.

He started to make some aggressive early manoeuvres in a bid to recover positions, but went too deep in the dirty air of Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber and crashed at Turn Five, bringing out the safety car and destroying his hopes of salvaging points.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about his weekend, Piastri explained: "Obviously, qualifying yesterday was what it was, and then today, more silly mistakes, so yes, it was certainly a messy weekend for sure, but I would be more concerned if I was slow and trying to make up for it that way, and having these errors because of that.

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"But the fact that they're just simple lapses in judgment, it's obviously not a position I want to be in or put, especially, the mechanics in, because it has been a rough weekend for them, but if I'm trying to find a silver lining, then I suppose I have that."

Despite leaving the goal wide open for Norris, the damage to Piastri's championship lead wasn't severe. The Brit could only finish P7, meaning the gap stands at 25 points - a full race victory. "Yeah, you know, I guess that is what it is," Piastri continued.

"I'm not too concerned about that. I think for me, I'm solely focused on myself and what I can do to improve. There is still a long way to go, and if you have good or bad weekends, the championship is far from over, so that is what I'm focused on."