Oscar Piastri admitted he “probably deserved” his five-second penalty for forcing Pierre Gasly off track early in the sprint race.
The McLaren driver finished tenth in Saturday’s sprint race after serving a post-race time penalty that was issued during the race.
The pair were battling over 13th place on the fourth lap of the sprint race when Piastri attempted a late lunge on the Alpine driver under braking for turn 12 at the end of the long back straight. Despite his front wheels only drawing level with Gasly’s rear wheels when the Alpine driver had reached the turn in point for the corner, Gasly left the McLaren space as they navigated the corner.
The pair arrived at the apex of the corner side-by-side, but as Piastri clipped the apex kerb on full lock, his speed caused him to run wide and drift to the exit kerb at the outside of the corner. This forced Gasly to take avoiding action to not get hit by the McLaren.
“I’m sorry, but he pushed me off the track,” Gasly immediately told his team over the radio.
The stewards investigated the incident and handed Piastri a five second time penalty for forcing Gasly off the track. Although Piastri had a penalty applied at the end of the race, he remained where he finished in tenth due to his advantage over Yuki Tsunoda at the end of the race.
The stewards argued that Piastri had failed to leave a “fair and acceptable width” for Gasly’s car when attempting the pass. However, rather than give Piastri a standard 10-second penalty, the stewards chose to give him a reduced penalty of five seconds as they determined that “the forcing off track was not deliberate and [Piastri] was in control of the car at all times.”
After the sprint race, Piastri admitted that the penalty was “probably deserved.”
“Once I committed to the corner, I couldn’t really back out of it,” he told Sky.
“I tried to give as much space as I could, but it was very much on Pierre to, kind of, get out of my way, so that was nice of him.”
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2024 United States Grand Prix
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