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Oscar Piastri collided with Kimi Antonelli during the Brazilian GP, which ultimately took out Charles Leclerc from the race. While the stewards held him accountable for the incident, the former championship leader shared a five-word reaction to the whole clash, asserting that he was not at fault for what happened later.
Piastri started fourth for the Brazilian GP, while his teammate and championship rival, Lando Norris, led the field from pole for the 71-lap event. Moreover, he had a tough race start as he was hounded by Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar when the lights went out.
Despite the Frenchman's attempts, he was able to retain P4 and aimed to move up the order. One such opportunity was presented to him at the safety car restart, when he seemingly caught Antonelli napping and decided to dive down the inside of the corner.
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However, he was unable to control his car and tagged the teenager, who subsequently ricocheted into Leclerc and took him out in the aftermath. Reflecting on the incident inside the cockpit of the MCL39, he said over the team radio:
"He left me no space."
Though Piastri tried to present his case by asserting that he had no space on the inside of the corner, stewards penalized him for the incident with a 10-second penalty.
Oscar Piastri asserts he has what it takes to become a world champion
Oscar Piastri was the championship leader for the majority of the season. He got into the lead at the Saudi Arabian GP and held it until the Mexican GP, where Lando Norris won and took the command of the drivers' table.
Moreover, in the past four race weekends, Piastri has been unable to get back on the podium and has seemingly lost his mojo. But, the 24-year-old thinks otherwise, as he said, arriving ahead of the Brazilian GP (via F1's official website):
"I think in terms of the championship picture it doesn’t change a lot... People can think what they want to think. For me I know that I’ve still got what it takes to win the championship. Yeah, there have been some bumps along the road, but there have been bumps on the road for everyone this year at different points."
"I'm confident that I’ve learnt a lot of helpful things from the last couple of weekends in particular, and I’m confident as well that I can still perform at some of the heights of the success we’ve had this year. There are still a lot of laps to go this year and I’m very confident I can still win."
After the Brazilian GP Sprint race, Oscar Piastri's deficit to Lando Norris grew from one point to nine points, which he would be aiming to cut down on in the upcoming race weekends and regain the championship lead soon for his own title bid.
