🔥Oscar Piastri’s brilliant act as F1 world shaken by dreadful incident at Emilia-Romagna GP
The Aussie driver continued his sensational form, but it was overshadowed by scary scenes.
Oscar Piastri was among a number of drivers who checked to see if Yuki Tsunoda was OK after a scary incident in practice for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday. Piastri continued his dream run to score pole position for the main race at Imola, but the F1 world was left shaken by a big crash involving Tsunoda.
The Red Bull driver’s car careened off the track and flipped upside down in mid-air after hitting the barriers. But thankfully he was able to walk away unscathed and was checked out at the medical centre before returning to the paddock.
The crash led to a 15-minute delay for track repairs, and Piastri made sure to ask his team whether Tsunoda was alright before continuing. Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen were also heard asking their engineers if everything was OK for the Japanese driver.
“I’m okay, thankfully,” Tsunoda told reporters later in the day. “But at the same time, it’s very frustrating how I ended up [eliminated] in such an early stage, especially in a very unnecessary situation.”
“[My form] is kind of up and down. Some sessions I feel OK, some sessions suddenly I’ve dropped a lot. FP3 was to be honest a big mystery, how I ended up. Obviously, the lap, [I was not] able to put it all together, but at the same time it was pretty poor pace. We don’t know exactly why.
“We made a lot of changes and it felt pretty good in the first turn, turn two, turn three, and then I crashed immediately after. So it’s just a shame, I feel like the car was quite there and just put myself into the wall with such a stupid mistake.”
F1 fans and commentators were left shaken by the crash, which looked much worse at first glance. It came on the same circuit in Imola where Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna was killed in 1994, with that tragic memory always hanging over the Autodromo di Imola Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
Jack Doohan’s father takes swipe at son’s replacement
Tsunoda wasn’t the only driver to crash on Saturday, with Alpine driver Franco Colapinto also coming unstuck. Colapinto, who was returning to the grid in place of dumped Aussie Jack Doohan, also went to the medical centre after a dismal return to F1.
He qualified in 15th place, but was later dropped one place for an unrelated pit lane infringement. Doohan’s famous father Mick took a swipe at Colapinto in a since-deleted Instagram story, writing “very impressive” alongside a series of laughing emojis over an image of Colapinto’s car after the crash.
Oscar Piastri chasing fourth-straight victory
Piastri can equal Senna’s record of four wins in a row if he salutes in the main race on Sunday (local time). Senna is the last McLaren driver to win four on the bounce, achieving the feat in 1991.
The championship leader pulled out a brilliant when under the utmost pressure, edging Red Bull champion Max Verstappen, while George Russell was third for Mercedes and Piastri’s unhappy teammate Lando Norris fourth. Piasri admitted he “thought it was going to unravel” when he approached slower cars towards the end of qualifying.
But he finished 0.034 seconds quicker than Verstappen in one minute 14.670s, earning his third pole of the season. He can claim his fifth victory in seven races – and a fourth in a row – if he crosses the line first on Sunday.
“It was a very tough session with all the delays, the red flags,” said Piastri, who won in China and Bahrain from pole. “The lap was good. I had about four cars in the last corner, which didn’t help, but it was enough. So, very happy with the job well done and excited for tomorrow.”
