Oscar Piastri says his contact with Yuki Tsunoda in the Mexican Grand Prix was a case of “hard racing”, but the AlphaTauri driver felt that his McLaren rival had caused the run-in and deserved a penalty.
The two drivers had been locked in battle for P7 since the start of the second part of the race, after a red flag triggered by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had paused proceedings.
The fight intensified however on lap 48 of 71 when Piastri strengthened his grip on seventh as Tsunoda went on the attack.
The cars made contact twice, resulting in Piastri narrowly avoiding a spin as he exited Turn 1 and entered Turn 2.
On the subsequent lap, Tsunoda once again attempted to overtake the McLaren, this time on the outside as they approached the first corner.
However, this time the contact was more significant, with the front left of Piastri's MCL60 colliding with Tsunoda's AT04. This sent the Japanese driver into a spin, causing him to veer off the track at Turn 1.
“I’m not really sure what happened,” commented Piastri. “I was just braking and then we touched wheels. Nothing really more than that. It was hard racing.”
The Aussie’s adversary on the other hand was left fuming but was reluctant to discuss the incident after the race, for fear of saying something that he might later regret.
“I don’t want to comment about these things,” he said. “I already commented enough when I was driving!
“We were showing a good performance and it’s such a shame I ended up like that. I felt the tyres were starting to struggle so I wanted to overtake as soon as possible.”
Although the incident was put under investigation by the stewards, they ultimately took no further action, a decision that didn’t surprise Tsunoda.
“As I expected, they love the top teams,” said the Japanese driver who alluded to a preferential treatment for McLaren relative to AlphaTauri.
Unfortunately, the on-track spat had resulted in damage for Piastri who was nevertheless able to bring his car home in eighth position after waving past Norris on lap 55.
“I had some damage at that point,” he explained. “There were a few broken things. It’s visible.
“But Lando was very quick compared to everyone, so it didn’t make any sense to try and battle each other.
“In the end, it meant Lando got another two spots. It worked out well for the team.”
Piastri conceded that four points in the bag was “better than nothing”, but he also believed that based on his McLaren’s pace at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a better result could have bene achieved.
“With the pace we have in our car now I don’t really think there’s that much to brag about,” commented the 22-year-old. “Still always looking for more.
“I just struggled a bit in certain parts and it made life much more difficult. I think the pace with the cars around was similar, just Lando was just very, very strong in the last stint and was able to come up quick.”
Looking ahead to next weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Piastri will find himself once again – like in Mexico City – in unfamiliar territory.
“It’s going to be another new circuit, a sprint weekend, so I’m going to have to get up to speed quickly,” said Piastri.
“It looks like a cool circuit, an old-school circuit, so definitely something to prepare for and see what we can do. It will be interesting to see.”
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