Oscar Piastri handed major 'hard done by' defence in punishment blow

British racing driver Jamie Chadwick has defended Oscar Piastri and insisted the McLaren driver was "hard done by" to be penalised so heavily in São Paulo. 

Piastri received a 10-second time penalty in the opening stages of the São Paulo GP after being judged as "wholly responsible" for the collision involving Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc. 

At an early safety car restart, Piastri dived to the inside of Antonelli at the first corner, while Leclerc opted for the outside of the pair. 

As the trio entered the corner, Piastri locked up and hit Antonelli, who as a result struck Leclerc which took the Ferrari driver out of the race. 

While Piastri looked initially at fault, overhead and onboard footage showed Antonelli squeeze Piastri, who was unable to get any closer to the inside of the circuit.

Dissecting the incident between the three drivers, Chadwick said on Sky F1: "At this point, it's a three into one doesn't go, but I think it can go. 

"It just requires a huge amount of awareness from all three drivers and Charles for me, complete innocent party has a lot of awareness. 

"He's pretty much as far over to the right as you can be going into it. The person that hasn't necessarily used all the room available to him is Kimi, for me. 

"And so I actually am on the sort of side of where I think Oscar has been hard done by here. I think Kimi could have still maybe held his position, but made Oscar's life easier and not risked that bit of contact in this instance."

Piastri lock up not his fault

The penalty Piastri received severely impacted his finishing position, as the Australian would have crossed the finish line likely in second rather than fifth. 

It means the 24-year-old finds himself 24 points adrift of Lando Norris in the drivers' title fight, instead of what would have been a 16-point deficit if he finished in second.

Piastri's lock up in the incident did work against his defence, although Chadwick insists the error was not actually his fault.

Addressing Piastri locking up, Chadwick added: "He's not, in my opinion, locked up because he's out of control. He's locked up because he's seen Kimi turning in a bit on him. 

"His natural reaction is to press the brake pad a little bit harder, turn as much left as he can, to get as close to the white line, causing that lock up. 

"But for me, even with the lock up, he's still as far to the white line as he could be, and still hasn't been given the room by Kimi."