McLaren Racing Formula One driver Oscar Piastri crashed out in the opening lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit. Before the incident, the Australian driver jumped the start, for which he received a five-second penalty. However, he won’t need to serve that in the next race in Singapore.

The 51-lap race in Baku was expected to be a chaotic one, given the six red flag incidents during qualifying on Saturday. Piastri, too, crashed out in qualifying, which led him to start the Grand Prix from ninth place.

Following the jump start, Piastri stopped again while the others set off, as he had to respond to the anti-stall on his MCL39. As soon as he set off, he was eager to recover places. But his race ended when he slid into the barriers at Turn 5.

F1’s regulations state that a driver must serve a penalty in the next race if he is unable to serve it in the current race. However, the guidelines also clarify instances when the penalty is not converted to the next race. The rule states:

“In 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.”

Moreover, Piastri did not interfere with the race results or gain an undue competitive advantage through his errors, leaving no reason for the FIA stewards to carry forward his penalty to the next race.

Addressing the jump start error, Piastri described it as a misjudgment on his part. Newsweek Sports reported his statement:

“Yeah, just misjudgment on the lights, I guess trying to anticipate it too much and, yeah, simple error, and then went into anti-stall and yeah. Went downhill from there, so just a simple, simple error.”

When asked how he was feeling, especially with Norris not finishing in the top five to gain significant points in the championship, he said:

“You know, ultimately, I felt like the pace has still been good this weekend and, I think it’s rare that I have so many executional errors, so very much focused on putting that behind me.

“I would be much more concerned if these errors were because I was trying to make up time or, you know, do things like that. Obviously being costly errors but things that can be very, very easily rectified.”