Oscar Piastri has endured a difficult run in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after finishing the fourth round of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season just out of the points in P11.

It was an unfortunate result for the Australian McLaren rookie, who had been battling a stomach bug all weekend but had put in decent performances across all sessions throughout the weekend in Baku.

With the round serving as the first of six new and improved Sprint weekends this season, Piastri was highly consistent for much of the round, starting with a solid P10 in Friday’s qualifying session.

While he reached Q3 for the second time this year, the 22-year-old just missed out on another top 10 finish on Saturday, placing 11^th in the Sprint qualifying shootout.

Piastri managed to make up a position for the shortened race though as he finished 10^th behind Alex Albon.  

When it came to Sunday’s race, Piastri lost a place to George Russell on the opening lap and found himself in a battle against Yuki Tsunoda for the whole 51-lap race.

Unfortunately he couldn’t overtake the Japanese driver, and although the duo swapped places multiple times on the restart, the Aussie just couldn’t do anything to pass the AlphaTauri driver, eventually settling for 11th. 

Ahead of them, Sergio Perez picked up his second win for the year, beating Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen to the chequered flag. While Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc picked up his first podium for the year.

Just missing out on a podium was Fernando Alonso, who comfortably beat Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to fourth place. Lance Stroll picked up seventh ahead of George Russell, who secured the fastest lap bonus point on the final lap.

Rounding out the points was Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris in ninth and Tsunoda in 10th.

It’s back-to-back weekends for the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, with the Miami Grand Prix on 7 May and Aussie fans can watch live from 5:30am AEST on Monday 8 May.