Oscar Piastri penalised, misses out on points at Mexico City Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri’s difficult Mexico City Grand Prix weekend concluded without any championship points after the McLaren driver received a 10‑second penalty for his collision with Arvid Lindblad.

Piastri had compiled a streak of roughly 60 Q3 appearances (including sprints) but qualified 12th at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, setting up a battle among the midfield pack.

He advanced three places at the start, overtaking Franco Colapinto and Lindblad to claim seventh. The Australian held a lead of about 13 seconds over the rookie when Valtteri Bottas crashed, but the subsequent safety‑car period and standing restart erased that advantage, allowing Lindblad to move ahead on the restart.

Piastri pursued his rival for 12 laps before attempting an overtake on the outside of Turn 1. On the inside line for Turn 2 he failed to concede early enough and made contact with the Racing Bulls driver’s rear‑left wheel with his front‑right. Lindblad slid into the wall.

“I tried to go up the inside actually, and then he shut the door very, very late,” Piastri recounted. “So I had to kind of avoid him and end up on the outside. I tried from there, and obviously he pushed me pretty wide… we just interlocked wheels, and that was the end result, of course.”

When asked whether he had been sufficiently alongside to claim racing room, Piastri replied that it was tricky, that he was very close, and that he was already off‑track when the contact occurred. “I was trying to concede the position, and I was already off the track, so I couldn’t really do much more than that,” he explained.

Lindblad, who did not comment on the incident because he had not been able to watch a replay, still made his thoughts clear: “In the end, we were fast, I was in a genuine race with him, he was stuck behind me for over 10 laps. I was committed for racing for the position, and I wasn’t just going to let him easily drive around the outside of me.”

The FIA stewards imposed a 10‑second penalty, dropping Piastri from seventh to a position outside the points‑scoring slots.

“On the approach to Turn 1, the driver of Car 81 attempted an overtake on the outside of Car 41,” the stewards’ report read. “Car 81 was never fully alongside Car 41 so was not able to claim the right to the corner. Through Turn 1, the driver of Car 41 defended his position by releasing the brakes, however does not force Car 81 off the track, allowing racing room on the outside – which he is not required to do. The Stewards determined that the collision could have been avoided if the driver of Car 81 had moved further to the left after Turn 1, even if this involved leaving the track prior to Turn 2.”

Piastri also reported significant damage to his McLaren: “I tried to get a number on how much damage I had… I could kind of sense in Tom [Stallard, race engineer]’s voice that we had a lot of damage. When I looked at the car afterwards, it was pretty significant, so it was hard work. I think we had enough pace to be able to hang on reasonably comfortably in the end, but yeah, not the easiest last 10 laps for sure.”

Additional reporting by Stuart Codling and Ronald Vording

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

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