Piastri mistake ruins his home race; Lawson crashes out
F1 News
A mistake in front of his home fans saw Oscar Piastri's race ruined, with the McLaren driver's mistake beaching his car and dropping him to the back of the grid. Liam Lawson also crashed out of his Red Bull debut, bringing out the third safety car of the day.
Piastri breaks Australian hearts
A McLaren 1-2 looked likely, with Piastri and Lando Norris dominating proceedings at Albert Park. However, after the second safety car, it all went wrong for the Australian in front of his home fans, as a mistake on the restart saw him overshoot the penultimate corner and end up on the grass, beaching his car and sending him to the back of the grid.
That resulted in drivers going back into the pits to replace their slick tyres with intermediate tyres as more rain fell in Melbourne, with the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc gambling to try and make something happen while all the other drivers, including Norris, went back onto the wet weather tyres.
However, rookies Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto also could not keep their respective cars on track, resulting in the third safety car of the day, and that saw the Ferraris come in and put on the intermediate tyres, putting them back down the order.