Oscar Piastri has expressed his frustration at the 10-second penalty that put him out of contention for a podium finish at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and dealt another heavy blow to his title rival.
Piastri clashed with Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Turn 1 on an early safety car restart, pressing on the inside and making contact with the Mercedes driver.
This contact led to Antonelli’s car colliding with Charles Leclerc, which led to the Ferrari driver immediately withdrawing from the race.
Stewards held Piastri, who finished fifth in the race, responsible for the collision, saying the Australian “was unable to determine the required overlap before and at the apex, as his front axle was not next to the car’s mirror 12, as specified in the standard driving guidelines for overtaking inside the corner.”
Piastri accepted the decision but did not agree with it completely.
“In my opinion, I had a very clear opportunity inside, and I took it. Yes, there was a closure, but, you know, I was on top, on the white line, I couldn’t go any further to the left, and I couldn’t simply disappear.
“The decision is what it is, it was one of a number of difficult moments during the day and this weekend, but yes, I wouldn’t have done anything differently if I had had another chance.”
Piastri had locked his brakes to avoid contact but was unable to do so. When asked if it was a sign of losing control, he said: “I don’t know, no matter how you look at it, I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go, because, you know, when you have that good run in Turn 1, right, you’re not just going to back off.
He added: “To try to go deeper than I did would have been ambitious, and I was where I was, so I think in this scenario if I was clearly understeering and failed to get to the top, and then I hit Kimi, then I would certainly understand that.”
“But the fact that I was as far left as possible makes it difficult.”
LeClerc also said he felt Piatri was not entirely to blame for the collision.
“I watched it from afar, from where I was sitting on the grass looking at the big screen from afar. It’s a shame,” he said.
“Collateral damage from the incident between Oscar and Kimi, where in my opinion Kimi was as much to blame as Oscar.
“For me, it was like a 50-50 accident, with Oscar being optimistic, and Kimi making the turn as if Oscar was never there. That means they bumped into each other and touched me.”
The penalty made the weekend even more difficult for Piastri, who finished fourth in qualifying and also crashed in the sprint. It was his second consecutive fifth place finish, and Lando Norris’ victory in Sao Paulo means he now leads his McLaren teammate by 24 points heading into the Las Vegas GP.
– Brazilian Grand Prix: Lando Norris wins, increasing his lead to the summit
-Lando Norris on how he finds form: “Ignore everyone who talks nonsense.”
“It wasn’t going easy, that’s for sure,” Piastri said.
“This weekend there were moments and flashes where I felt very comfortable… (in) training things became much easier again.
“We got away a little bit over the weekend, even our pace as a team I don’t think was as strong as it was on Friday, and the car went in a direction that I wasn’t too impressed with.
“But we did our best to put the car in a good window and the quick crash made things difficult as well. There are a lot of things going wrong at the moment, but there are still flashes of really strong speed and we’re trying to make sure we get that all the time.”
Information from ESPN’s Nate Saunders contributed to this report.
