Piastri: Clash with Sainz a 'lap one, Turn 1 incident'

Oscar Piastri says his run-in with Carlos Sainz in the Belgium Grand Prix was "quite firmly in the category of a lap one, Turn 1 incident", where options were limited for both drivers.

Piastri found himself caught between a rock and a hard place as he steered into La Source right after the start, with Sainz on one side and the inside wall of the corner on the other.

The McLaren driver had committed to the inside line at Turn 1 just as his Ferrari rival aimed for the apex, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton running on the outside to his left.

Sainz was half a car's length ahead of Piastri, but contact ensued as the latter was locked into his position and had nowhere to go, the right corners of his McLaren bouncing off the inside wall.

• Read also: Sainz calls Piastri move into Turn 1 at Spa 'a bit optimistic'

Although Sainz managed to survive until lap 23 before parking his by then undriveable SF-23, Piastri was forced to retire over halfway through the lap on the exit of Turn 13 with a puncture and a broken steering.

For the young Aussie, it was an unsatisfactory end to a brilliant very productive weekend in Spa that had seen him lead his first F1 race and claim his maiden Sprint event podium.

"I got a good start and got my nose alongside, and then when we got to the braking zone Carlos moved a bit to the right and locked up and I also had to try and avoid that a bit," he explained.

"From there to the apex, my options were quite limited on where I could go.

"I’ll look back over it and see if there was more I could have done but yeah, just a shame that we’re standing here and not still on track."

In hindsight, Piastri felt that both drivers "could have done things a bit differently."

"It’s a very tight Turn 1, Carlos also didn’t have many options from where Lewis was either, so it’s a shame.

"I think from Carlos’s point of view, the move to the right surprised me a bit.

"Then for myself, I think from there I was quite limited, maybe I could have braked a bit later and been further alongside, but it’s very easy to say that with hindsight.

"I think once I was in that position it was quite hard to either go forward or go backwards, and I was kind of stuck.

"I tried to do the best I could from that position but there wasn’t much I could do."

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