Oscar Piastri was involved in a dramatic collision with Arvid Lindblad on lap 59 of the Mexico City Grand Prix, which earnt the former a post-race penalty saw the latter sent crashing into the barriers.
The Australian was attempting to make a move around the outside of Lindblad, looking to gain the inside line heading into the following corner.
But with little room left between the two drivers, contact was made, with Piastri’s front wing clipping Lindblad’s left rear tyre and sending him into the barriers.
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Piastri was quick to explain the incident to his McLaren team over the radio, insisting he had attempted to avoid the contact.
“I was trying to give him the corner. We made contact before the corner,” Piastri said.
“I was perfectly straight.”
But the collision had also left Piastri’s McLaren with significant damage, with a large section of aerodynamic bodywork missing from the right side of his car.
“I obviously need to look back at it more, but from in the car, I went to go up the inside of turn 1 and Arvid moved very late, so I kind of ended up on the outside because I was avoiding him,” Piastri said after the race. “Then from that point onwards I tried to go around the outside.
“He pushed me pretty wide. I was trying to back out. Where we made contact was well before the corner actually happened.
“From my side of things I really didn’t have anywhere else to go. We’ll see what the stewards say.”
The incident was placed under investigation by the stewards following the collision, with a 10-second time penalty eventually handed down.
That call tumbled him all the way out of the points to 15th — third-to-last out of those who finished the race.
Earlier, Sky Sports analyst Karun Chandhok said he beleived Piastri hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Even if he braked to slow down, he can’t just disappear,” he said.
“I think that’s just a racing incident and really unfortunate for Lindblad there.”
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Despite the damage, Piastri was able to continue and finish the race in seventh position, recovering five places after starting 12th on the grid before the penalty was applied.
The Australian had a disappointing qualifying session, failing to reach Q3 for the first time in almost two years.
Piastri was knocked out in Q2 after qualifying 13th, marking his first failure to reach the final session since the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix, where he qualified 17th.
On that occasion, Piastri managed to fight his way back to finish eighth, with the McLaren driver once again showing his ability to recover through the field in Mexico City, despite the late-race collision and penalty.