Piastri had to get first F1 crash 'out of the way'

Oscar Piastri says it was inevitable that he would at some point suffer his first crash in F1, a smash-up the McLaren driver got "out of the way" in qualifying in Montreal.

Despite the difficult track conditions that prevailed at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Piastri had steered clear of trouble from the start of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, including through the first two segments of qualifying.

But in Q3, the Aussie blotted his copy when he spun into the barriers at Turn 8, an incident that triggered a brief red flag and left the McLaren charger P9 in the pecking order.

Piastri immediately owned up to his driver error which he said was due to being overly aggressive on the throttle in the precarious conditions.

"I think it's been a reasonably encouraging weekend," he said. "I think most of qualifying was good, apart from Q3.

"But even in saying that, I'm not sure what the potential in Q3 would have been myself.

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"It’s my first sort of major mistake and I had to get the first crash out of the way at some point. Just too aggressive on the throttle and that was all.

"It is easy to do, and obviously a shame. I’m sorry to the mechanics who now have more work than they need. But yeah, all in all, I'm still reasonably happy with how the weekend has gone."

While he's had a few off-track excursions in F1, Piastri said that his last proper crash at the wheel of a racing car dated back to his Formula Renault days.

"I've had a couple of spins in an F1 car, but the last time I hit a wall or got stuck.... yeah, that was probably Formula Renault in 2019 when I got stuck in the gravel. So it's been a while," he said.

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