Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo had a tough weekend in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, both falling victim to a lap one incident in Sao Paulo.  

The Australian duo were both forced into the pits after sustaining damage after an incident involving Williams’ Alex Albon and the two Haas cars.  

All signs were pointing towards Piastri retiring the car before a red flag gave his McLaren engineers the chance to repair the damaged rear wing and get the 22-year-old back out on track.  

Meanwhile, Ricciardo suffered a similar fate but was forced to rejoin the grid a lap down alongside his Australian rival, due to both drivers pitting before the red flag was waved.  

Both drivers were able to unlap themselves on multiple occasions but were not able to push to be in contention for points.  

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom as both drivers were able to crack the top 10 in the weekend’s earlier sprint race, with Ricciardo finishing ninth ahead of Piastri in 10th.  

While it wasn’t to be for the Australians in Brazil, there were a couple of Aussies elsewhere around the world finding success in their respective category debut.  

After a great year in the United Kingdom, Cooper Webster had a successful debut in the Indian Formula 4 Championship, taking round honours after two dominant victories on Sunday.  

The Victorian started the weekend off slowly by finishing sixth in race one but would then go on to take out both races two and three by comfortable margins of more than five seconds.  


Photo: India F4 Championship 

The other driver to find success was Liam Talbot, who took his GT talents to the Middle East for the Eight Hours of Bahrain event.  

After qualifying second in the LMGTE AM World Endurance Championship class, Talbot, racing with D’Station Racing teammates Casper Stevenson and Tomonobu Fujii, was able to maintain position and secure the second step on the podium, also crossing the line in an impressive 23rd outright.  

The journey also continued for Jesse Lacey in the United States Formula 4 Championship – who was this time joined by another young Aussie Daniel Quimby, also making his category debut.  

It was an impressive weekend for Lacey throughout, who was able to crack the top 10 in all three races at the famous Circuit of the Americas, including a second place in the third and final outing.  

The results were all the more important considering it was the final round of the season, where Lacey moved into fourth in the overall standings.  

It was also a fantastic debut for Quimby, crossing the line in eighth place in race one before improving to seventh in the second outing.  

The New South Welshman rounded out the weekend with 14th place in race three putting together an impressive debut weekend in the category.