Martin Brundle apologises after BLANKING F1 star on Singapore Grand Prix gridwalk

F1 News & Gossip

Brundle apologises after BLANKING F1 star on Singapore gridwalk

The commentary legend had another faux pas on at the Marina Bay circuit

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 18 September 2023 22:51

Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has apologised to McLaren's Oscar Piastri for snubbing an interview with the Australian, saying 'that wasn’t my finest grid-walk moment.'

Brundle has become synonymous for his grid-walks on race days, where he walks up and down the grid chatting to various drivers, team members and, indeed, celebrities.

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He has had his fair share of awkward moments where certain personalities have either ignored him, been rude to him or have taken offence to the fact he is trying to talk to them during his 26 years of doing the feature for various broadcasters.

Savage from Piastri

Martin Brundle's grid walks have been a fixture of race days for over 25 years

This time, however, it was Brundle who displayed rudeness, completely cutting off Piastri's interview in order to speak to Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, who was celebrating his 27th birthday.

Um, yes sorry about that Oscar, wasn’t my finest gridwalk moment in 26 years ?. Just wanted to wish Esteban happy birthday as he strode past, but you were DRS open and full battery and quite rightly dropped me like an Aussie Rules rookie ? https://t.co/FOLQv9WyXE
— Martin Brundle (@MBrundleF1) September 17, 2023

Piastri opted to just walk away to go and get ready for the race, leaving Brundle without an interviewee in a very awkward few moments.

After the race, Piastri took to the X app, formerly known as Twitter, to break his silence on the matter.

"Shall we finish that interview in Suzuka @MBrundleF1?", he said, to which Brundle replied: "Um, yes sorry about that Oscar, wasn’t my finest gridwalk moment in 26 years. Just wanted to wish Esteban happy birthday as he strode past, but you were DRS open and full battery and quite rightly dropped me like an Aussie Rules rookie."

It didn't seem to affect Piastri's race, however, as he put in yet another impressive performance in the McLaren to climb from 17th up to seventh.