Live: Oscar Piastri crashes out on first lap in Baku

Max Verstappen is out of DRS range to second-place Carlos Sainz.

Sainz has a 0.8-second gap to Liam Lawson in third.

McLaren’s Lando Norris has overtaken Isack Hadjar and is up to eighth.

It is a double-whammy for Oscar Piastri.

The Australian has been handed a five-second penalty for a false start.

But he cannot serve it.

Surely this means he will have a grid place penalty in Singapore.

Fernando Alonso has also been penalised five seconds for a false start.

Max Verstappen has put his foot to the floor and we are racing again.

The Dutchman waits for as long as he can, and he nails it.

Verstappen gets a nice gap to Carlos Sainz in second.

Lando Norris has been jumped by Charles Leclerc on the restart.

Norris has dropped to ninth.

So.

Oscar Piastri is out of the grand prix.

His 31-point lead in the drivers’ championship will almost certainly be reduced.

Lando Norris is currently running in eighth.

Max Verstappen leads.

1. 1.Verstappen
2. 2.Sainz
3. 3.Lawson
4. 4.Antonelli
5. 5.Russell
6. 6.Tusnoda
7. 7.Hadjar
8. 8.Norris
9. 9.Leclerc
10. 10.Hamilton

There are a bunch of cars coming into the pits.

There is a sense of shock at Baku.

Oscar Piastri has been unflappable all season.

He has suffered three critical errors in the space of 24 hours.

Oscar Piastri is out.

He has crashed into the wall.

It has been a disaster.

The Australian suffered a false start, then stopped, and then plummeted down the order.

In stone cold last, the Australian locked his brakes and crashed into the wall at turn 6.

Oscar Piastri has had a shocker.

He is stone cold last on the first lap.

Max Verstappen slots into pole position.

Carlos Sainz joins him on the front row.

Lando Norris is starting seventh, and the drivers’ championship leader, Oscar Piastri, is ninth.

There is a green flag flying in the background.

The lights come on: one, two, three, four, five — GO!

Verstappen puts his foot to the floor and guns for the first corner.

Sainz is in hot pursuit, and the McLaren duo are trying to avoid drama.

They arrive at the first corner …

Let’s see what compound of tyres are on each car.

Max Verstappen has gone for the hard tyres, while the next three behind him are on the mediums.

George Russell (fifth) and Yuki Tsunoda (sixth) are also on the hards.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are on the medium compound.

Hello Hanan.

Thanks for joining me this evening.

There is a lot of jeopardy for every driver out there tonight.

A tight street circuit, windy conditions and a threat of rain.

This could be fun tonight.

Williams team principal James Vowles has just spoken to Sky Sports ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

He says his team are keenly watching a threatening rain cloud, headed towards the track.

He says it is about an hour away.

It is currently 28 degrees Celsius at the circuit.

G’day Kim.

Good question, mate.

Oscar Piastri will start ninth. There is no penalty for McLaren changing his damaged chassis.

I write this post with a sense of caution, because anything can happen on the streets of Baku.

Safety cars and red flags are a very real possibility, and there is some rain lurking around the Azerbaijan capital.

That being said, if we have a dry race with no dramas, then this race is expected to be a one-stop for the drivers.

Analysis according to F1.com suggests starting on the medium tyre, then changing to the hard compound between laps 16-22.

The hard compound should comfortably get a driver to the end of the race, which will be at the conclusion of lap 51.

Racing Bulls have determined that Isack Hadjar’s car has a hydraulic issue.

Hadjar, who is starting eighth between the two McLarens, was reporting power issues on his way to the grid.

Alan Permane, Racing Bulls team principal, told Sky Sports they will try to fix it on the grid.

“We think a hydraulic issue, we are just pulling the bodywork off and having a look. We think it might be simple, but if it is not, we don’t have much time to fix it.”

Phillip, I am not missing out on an opportunity to talk about brakes.

Firstly. Your daily drive, my daily drive, and (hopefully) almost everyone’s daily drive has a safety feature known as ABS (Anti-lock Braking System).

ABS is designed to ensure none of your wheels lock up when you brake. It works by sensors detecting when a wheel is about to lock, then the system pulses the brake pressure to ensure the wheel roatates.

F1 cars do not have ABS — and they haven’t since the mid-1990s.

That means it is down to the skill of the driver to ensure the tyres to not lock.

When it comes to one wheel reacting differently from another, you must remember that each wheel is under different conditions.

Each wheel is touching a different part of the track. If one wheel goes over a puddle, it may struggle to find grip while the other three wheels are fine.

Depending on the corner, more force will go into one tyre more than the other because of the lateral force.

I love talking about F1 tech.

The fallout from Oscar Piastri’s crash in qualifying yesterday has led to a change to his car.

McLaren has changed the chassis, also known as a survival cell, on Piastri’s car.

Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz says this chassis on Piastri’s car is an older one, and has been used by Piastri for four wins this season.

G’day Steve.

Slight chance of rain today, but it is not expected.

However, the wind has been blowing strongly in the lead-up to the grand prix. 

Strong winds make cornering difficult.

The drivers are in their cars and a making their way to the grid.

We are still a little over 30 minutes from the start of the race.

There is an issue for Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar.

He has reported to his team that he can hear a weird noise when he applies the throttle.

The Racing Bulls team are looking into it.