Following the Mexican Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri was penalised for a collision with Arvid Lindblad and has therefore been excluded from the points
Oscar Piastri has been handed a 10-second time penalty following his collision with Arvid Lindblad at the Mexican Grand Prix. According to the race stewards, Piastri could have avoided the collision at the first corner by moving further to the left after the first corner or even running off the track.
Ultimately, according to the FIA’s assessment, he was never fully alongside the VCARB at any point. The Racing Bulls driver was therefore not obliged to give way to him, according to the reasoning behind the decision.
As a result of the collision, Lindblad was forced to retire from the race early. Although Piastri initially finished seventh, the time penalty – which was only imposed after the race – saw the McLaren driver drop to 13th place in the final standings.
“I actually wanted to overtake on the inside there,” explained Piastri after the race. “But he closed the door very, very late. So I had to get out of his way on the outside.‘
’From there, I just gave it a go, and he clearly forced me onto the outside,‘ said Piastri. ’At that point, I knew I wouldn’t quite be able to get past him. So I tried to back off.”
“But,” as Piastri emphasises, “he pushed me so far outwards that I couldn’t go any further to the left. Then our wheels touched and that’s just how it happened.”
Unsurprisingly, Lindblad sees it a little differently and explains: “I haven’t looked at it yet, so I can’t comment. In the end, we were both just going pretty fast.”
“I had a proper battle with him,” said the rookie. “[Oscar] had been behind me for more than ten laps. I was determined to fight for that position, and I certainly wasn’t going to just let him pass me on the outside.”
Although Piastri was able to continue his race after the collision, his MCL40’s performance was compromised by some damage.
“I think I was very close to being ‘right next to him’,” explains Piastri. “I was in that situation to avoid a crash. It’s tricky, but the moment we collided, we both had to go straight on.”
“It wasn’t as if I was trying to stick my nose somewhere it didn’t belong in Turn 2,” said the McLaren driver. “I was trying to give up the position and was already off the track. I couldn’t have done any more than that.”