Oscar Piastri's worst weekend of 2025 ended with a false start, then a lap one crash, but he retains a healthy championship lead after his teammate failed to capitalise.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen converted pole position into a dominant Azerbaijan Grand Prix win, ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and Williams's Carlos Sainz.
On a weekend where he crashed in qualifying and then scored no points, Piastri retains a 25-point lead over his McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the drivers' championship as the Briton was only able to manage a seventh-place finish.
Starting ninth, Piastri committed a false start, then dropped to last as he slammed on the brakes when the lights went out.
Six corners later, the Australian's race was over when he locked his tyres and went into the barrier.
Trying to regain lost positions from last, Piastri flew into the tight left-hander, locked his tyres, and collided with the barrier.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Piastri described his two mistakes as "silly" for him.
"Clearly went into the corner way too hot, and that was that," he said.
"The grip level was low, but I should know that. I'm certainly not blaming it on anything other than myself.
"Just didn't make the judgement calls that I needed to at the right time, and that's obviously disappointing."
[race classification]Piastri was handed a five-second penalty for the false start, which he did not serve due to his retirement.
Fortunately, a false start is not considered a minor incident and will not result in the Australian being handed a grid penalty at the next race in Singapore.
Unable to cross the track and return to his garage, Piastri literally watched on from the barrier as Norris was given a golden opportunity to take a massive chunk out of his championship lead.
Starting seventh after he clipped the wall on his final qualifying lap, Norris had dropped to ninth after the safety car restart, following Piastri's lap one crash, but was able to work his way back up the order.
A fifth-place finish was on the cards for Norris, who extended his first stint on the hard compound tyres to 37 of the 51 laps.
But for the second grand prix in a row, McLaren suffered a slow pit stop.
Norris likely would have ended up fifth, overcutting Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, while undercutting the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, who was less than two seconds ahead of him.
But the Briton ultimately ended up in eighth, behind all of them. Norris was able to pass Leclerc for seventh, but that was as good as he could achieve.
Meanwhile, four-time defending champion Verstappen dominated to victory and brought himself back into contention for the drivers' championship.
With back-to-back wins in Monza and Baku, Verstappen is now 69 points behind Piastri with seven rounds still to race.
McLaren's poor result also means their quest to seal a second consecutive constructors' championship must wait until Singapore.
The British team could have secured the title on Sunday, but Mercedes and Ferrari are still mathematically in the race.
New Zealander Lawson drove a terrific race to finish a career-high fifth for Racing Bulls, while his teammate Isack Hadjar finished 10th to secure a double-points finish for the team.
Relive all the action of the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the live blog below.
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