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Oscar Piastri crashes out of the Australian Grand Prix before the start, leaving Lando Norris as McLaren’s sole driver.
Oscar Piastri ‘s car sits on the track after he crashed during the formation lap ahead of the Australian Formula 1 GP (Picture credit: AP)
Star Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri went out of his home race at the Australian Grand Prix after he suffered a dramatic crash on his way to the grid on Sunday, March 8, in Melbourne. His crash meant that world champion Lando Norris was the only McLaren driver remaining in the race.
About 40 minutes before the race, Piastri left the pits for the customary laps to the grid as teams carried out their final checks before lining up on the starting grid.
But exiting the Turn 4 left-hander, Piastri lost control of his McLaren as he ran over the exit kerbs, with the MCL40 spinning and slamming into the wall on the driver’s left. Watch the video here:
Piastri escaped unhurt but destroyed the front end of his McLaren, suffering terminal damage to the right-front wheel and suspension, forcing the Aussie to park the car on the spot and walk away from the scene.
Piastri had qualified fifth for his home race and was set to line up on the third row alongside Norris. The crash dealt a massive blow to local fans, with a record crowd turning up to support the Melbourne native.
The sold-out Piastri grandstand on the main straight, overlooking the McLaren garage, which had been cheering his exit from the pitlane, fell silent in an instant.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the crash, Zak Brown said that there was nothing in the team’s data to indicate any problem with Piastri’s McLaren that could have caused the incident.
“We haven’t seen anything on the data so far. He did not say anything on the radio. So we will do a post-mortem after the race and see what happened,” Brown said.
March 08, 2026, 09:58 IST
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