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Oscar Piastri says it is tough to take the penalty for hitting Kimi Antonelli in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, after being limited to fifth place and losing more ground in the drivers’ championship.
The stewards gave Piastri a 10 second time penalty for causing a collision, when he hit Antonelli during a three-wide moment into Turn 1 after a safety car restart. Piastri was on the inside, with Antonelli in the middle and then having subsequent contact that eliminated Charles Leclerc, and the McLaren driver believes he had remained in full control throughout the incident.
“In my opinion, I had a very clear opportunity up the inside, went for it – yes there was a lockup, but I was firmly on the apex, on the white line. I couldn’t go any further left, and I can’t just disappear,” Piastri said. “The decision is what it is. It was one of a number of difficult moments through today and this weekend, but I wouldn’t have done anything differently if I had another chance.
“I would say I was losing ground, yes, but I think that’s because the other two were braking very late. It was a bit damp on the inside, so I was probably a bit cautious with that. Obviously when you’re on the outside you can take much more liberty.
“Again, there was a lockup, but I think the fact I kept it on the inside white line with a lockup, I was pretty firmly in control if I can keep my line.
“No matter what way you look at [the lockup], I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go, because when you have that good of a run into Turn 1, fully alongside, you’re not just going to back out. To try and go in any deeper than I did would have been ambitious, and I was where I was.
“I think in that scenario, if I was clearly understeering and missing the apex, and then hit Kimi, then sure I’d understand, but the fact I was as far left as I could have gone makes it tough.”
Lando Norris’ victory means Piastri drops 24 points behind his teammate in the drivers’ championship, and the Australian admits he is still searching for a consistent return to his form seen earlier in the season.
“Things have not been going easily, that’s for sure,” he lamented. “This weekend there were moments and flashes where I felt very comfortable – in practice things were coming much more easily again – [but] it went away from us a little bit through the weekend. Even just our pace as a team I don’t think was as strong as it [was] on Friday, and the car kind of went in a direction I wasn’t a big fan of.
“We tried our best to get the car in a good window. The Sprint crash made things difficult as well. Just a lot of things going wrong at the moment, but there’s still flashes of really strong pace and [we’re] trying to make sure we’ve got that all the time.”
