Oscar Piastri addresses Max Verstappen title threat after 'tough lessons'

Oscar Piastri has addressed the threat of Max Verstappen in the fight for the F1 drivers' title, after learning some "tough lessons" in the Azerbaijan GP. 

Piastri enters this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix with a 69-point advantage over Verstappen, while Lando Norris is only 25 points adrift. However, all eyes are on the Dutchman following his back-to-back victories. 

Baku was a disaster for Piastri and represented his first retirement of the season, following a crash on the opening lap – he also crashed in qualifying. 

It was a weekend full of rare mistakes by the Australian, whose championship lead over Norris has largely been built by him being flawless this season.

With Norris exactly a race win adrift and Verstappen building in confidence, Piastri cannot afford a repeat of Baku at the Marina Bay Circuit this weekend. 

Discussing the threat of Verstappen and not being able to afford another bad weekend, Piastri told media including RacingNews365: "I think even without disregarding who won the race, I think we don't want to have weekends like Baku. And we know we can't afford to have weekends like Baku. 

"Certainly from my side of things, there was some tough lessons to take, but I think as a team, we kind of recognised a few opportunities from the weekend to try and improve. 

"So that's always an important thing. I'm not that fussed with kind of what the championship picture looks like. 

"I think, Baku was quite a good reminder of, firstly, how quickly everything can change, but also on some of the things that have made the season so successful for myself and the team. 

"So I think just trying to stay focused on that will naturally take care of the championship picture."