Oscar Piastri has crashed into the barriers and out of the final qualifying session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix -- yet his rare mistake could have proved much more costly.

Australia’s championship leader reckoned he had been pushing too hard on Baku’s testing street circuit in windy, rain-spattered conditions on Saturday when he slammed his McLaren into the wall in the third qualifying session.

It left him qualifying in ninth but his teammate and nearest title challenger Lando Norris couldn’t take full advantage as he went flat-out for pole only to also have a slight brush with the wall on the way to finishing only seventh fastest.

Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen went on to take an immaculate pole - his sixth of the season - in the crash-strewn, chaotic qualifying session whic

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