Oscar Piastri admitted it “hurt” to not be on the podium at the least at his home race on Sunday, but took a brief moment to see the lighter side after getting caught in the grass at Albert Park.

The McLaren driver was chasing team-mate Lando Norris for the lead, but slid onto the grass in the final sector after a heavy rain shower late on, dropping him out of podium contention, eventually managing to recover to ninth place after being a lap down.

Oscar Piastri quips about Jeremy Clarkson lesson despite ‘hurt’ of missing Aus GP podium

Unable to drive forwards on the wet grass, Piastri instead placed his McLaren into reverse to try and regain traction – eventually doing so and getting back on track again.

While the Australian had fallen a lap down, a late Safety Car allowed him to unlap himself and rejoin the pack in 13th place, managing to score two points come the end of the race.

He spoke of his disappointment at missing out on the chance of chasing a home victory first of all, explaining to reporters at Albert Park after the chequered flag: “I tried to push a bit too much, I guess.

“In those conditions, very difficult to judge just how slippery it’s going to be. I think from one lap to the next, it had really changed a lot, and I could see Lando going off in front of me, but I was also already in the corner, basically, so there wasn’t much I could do to slow myself down at that point.

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“Then once you’re in the gravel, in the grass, you obviously try to keep the car as straight as possible, and then obviously to get stuck in the grass like that was pretty unbelievable sat in the car. But you know, I’ve only got myself to blame for being there, so it’s a shame.”

As for how he managed to get out again, Piastri referenced a November visit to the former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter’s Diddly Squat Farm, in which he was filmed learning to reverse a tractor while speaking to Clarkson.

While not taking away from the moment, he joked that his lesson proved fruitful in getting himself back out on track.

“I just was trying to stay in the race,” he said of his attempts to reverse.

“Tried to go forwards and couldn’t, so good thing I spent some time in the off-season trying to learn how to reverse a tractor on Jeremy Clarkson’s farm, I think it came in handy today.”

With Norris going on to win the race and McLaren appearing to have the fastest package in the field at the start of the season,

“I think for essentially 56 laps of today’s race, I was very proud of the job I did,” he said.

“The pace was really strong and, yeah, obviously disappointed with the mistake I made, but I think that doesn’t take away completely from how strong the whole weekend’s been for, not just the team, but for myself.

“I feel like I’ve done a good job all weekend, so I think it would be pessimistic of me to just write off the whole weekend because of one mistake.”

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