McLaren F1 driver Oscar Piastri acknowledged he “probably deserved” the five-second penalty he received for pushing Pierre Gasly off the track during an early battle in the sprint race which was held earlier today at the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of The Americas in Austin.
Oscar Piastri finished 10th in Saturday’s sprint, after serving the post-race penalty handed down during the event. The incident occurred on lap four, when the McLaren driver made a late dive under braking at turn 12, trying to overtake Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. However, despite the Australian’s front wheels barely reaching Pierre Gasly’s rear, the Alpine driver left space as they approached the corner.
As they went through the turn side-by-side, Oscar Piastri clipped the inside kerb while at full lock, but his speed caused him to drift wide, forcing Pierre Gasly to take evasive action to avoid contact.
“I’m sorry, but he pushed me off the track,” the French driver reacted over the radio following the incident.
The stewards reviewed the incident and issued Oscar Piastri a five-second time penalty for pushing Pierre Gasly off the track. Despite the penalty being applied after the race, the McLaren driver retained his tenth-place finish due to the gap between him and Yuki Tsunoda at the finish line.
The stewards concluded that Oscar Piastri had not left his rival a “fair and acceptable width” during the attempted overtake. However, instead of the usual 10-second penalty, they opted for a reduced five-second sanction, stating that Oscar Piastri did not intentionally force Pierre Gasly off and maintained control of his car throughout. Following the sprint, the Australian acknowledged that the penalty was “probably deserved.”
“Once I committed to the corner, I couldn’t really back out of it. I tried to give as much space as I could, but it was very much on Pierre to, kind of, get out of my way, so that was nice of him.” – he pointed out at the end of the Austin Sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas.
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