MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Wearing McLaren orange under soaking plastic ponchos, fans turned up in droves to the Formula One Australian Grand Prix on Sunday with hope of seeing Oscar Piastri end the nation's 40-year wait for a home winner.
The crowds left in disappointment, however, as the Melbourne native's race all but ended on lap 44 with a slide into gravel and a skid into grass on a dramatic day laden with crashes at Albert Park.
Running second behind teammate and eventual winner Lando Norris before the skid, Piastri managed to reverse off the grass and get back on track -- but not until most of the cars had roared past.
Finishing ninth of the 14 cars that made it to the end of the season opener was a good recovery in a chaotic race featuring three safety car deployments.
But Piastri, who finished fourth last year, may find it hard to see the positives.
"It's obviously pretty disappointing at the moment," he said.
"I feel like for every lap, apart from one, I drove an incredibly strong race and it's just a shame to not have the result to show for it.
"I don't have anyone to blame but myself."
No Australian has taken a podium place from the race since it joined Formula One's global circuit, and fans and local media speak of a home driver "curse".
Daniel Ricciardo mounted the podium as runner-up in 2014 for Red Bull but was disqualified due to a fuel breach.
As highly regarded a driver as he is, Piastri may never have a better chance to win his home Grand Prix given the strength of this year's McLaren car and F1's major technical shake-up coming for 2026.
For a short period during Sunday's race, fans had good reason to feel the curse might be broken as Piastri showed more pace than the leading Norris and began to reel his teammate in.
Despite McLaren's pre-race insistence that their drivers were "free to race", Piastri's momentum was stalled by a team order to maintain position due to incoming weather.
The order was soon lifted but Piastri lost ground by straying into a kerb before the fateful skid took him out of contention.
Team boss Zak Brown said the holding order was given because they wanted to clear traffic.
"They were pushing really hard in very tricky conditions," he said.
"I feel terrible for Oscar, he drove such a brilliant race."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
