Oscar Piastri suffered a heartbreaking DNF during the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday after running over a wet kerb on the exit of Turn Three. Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto also crashed at the same spot, bringing out a red flag.

The Australian was enjoying a better weekend after being outscored by Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in five consecutive Grands Prix, but things came undone eight laps into Saturday’s sprint. Running third behind his McLaren team-mate and Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, he lost control after running over a wet kerb on the inside of the circuit.

On the radio, Antonelli claimed that Norris had run wide and dragged water onto the circuit. This may well have been responsible for the off, as Piastri’s trip into the barriers was followed by Sauber’s Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Colapinto, whose seat for 2026 was confirmed on Friday ahead of FP1.

“That was so unlucky for all three of them because you can’t actually say they were doing anything wrong,” Martin Brundle said during Sky Sports F1’s broadcast. “It’s those that went on the kerb that found the water. The water’s not on the racetrack. Everybody that dipped a tyre onto that kerb got sent to the barriers.”

The crash had significant ramifications for Piastri’s title charge. After a miserable run of form, the 24-year-old travelled to Sao Paulo trailing Norris by a point after watching his 34-point advantage disintegrate in front of his eyes.

The spotlight on Piastri was already intense before Saturday’s sprint race crash. The Melbourne-born racer was even told to ‘put his foot down’ by Jos Verstappen, who feared that his reputation could take an irreversible hit should the current trajectory continue.

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“I think it’s obviously a difficult dynamic to manage when you’ve got the two cars in the same team fighting for a championship that only one car can win, that’s there’s obviously, naturally going to be difficulties with that,” Piastri responded, backing his team and their approach.

“But, I respect the team, allowing us to both try and fight for the Drivers’ Championship. I think for myself, I want to go out there and try and win the championship, knowing that I did it on my own merit and doing the things that I could do in my control.

“And obviously, if you pick one driver, you’ve got a 50 per cent chance that you’re not going to be that driver. So I think for me, we’re very much encouraged and welcomed to stand up for ourselves already, so I don’t think anything needs to change.”