‘A silly mistake’ – Piastri explains ‘unfortunate’ Sao Paulo Sprint crash

Oscar Piastri has given his take on the crash that put him out of the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with the Australian labelling the incident a “silly mistake”.

After making a clean start from P3 on the grid, Piastri was still in third place on Lap 6 when he appeared to take too much kerb – with parts of the track remaining damp following rainfall earlier in the day – which sent him into the barriers at Turn 3.

This was followed by two further crashes at the same corner for Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and the Alpine of Franco Colapinto just moments later. And while Hulkenberg was able to continue on back to the pits, Colapinto joined Piastri in finding himself out of the race.

The red flags were thrown after the incidents while Piastri’s McLaren team mate Lando Norris went on to take victory when the action resumed, meaning that the Briton has extended his championship lead over Piastri to nine points.

Sharing his reflections on what happened, Piastri explained: “I just dipped a wheel on the white line of the kerb and around I went.

“A silly mistake really, an unfortunate mistake, so that’s it.”

Speaking separately to Sky Sports F1, the 24-year-old added that his focus ahead of Qualifying later on Saturday would be to “try to put this behind [me]”.

"There's a lot more points on offer tomorrow, so the better job I can do in Qualifying to get a good starting spot, the better it will be,” he explained.