Oscar Piastri handed 'very harsh' defence after costly Brazil crash

Former F1 driver Martin Brundle has labelled Oscar Piastri's penalty at the Brazilian Grand Prix as “very harsh”.

The McLaren driver was issued a 10-second time penalty after making contact with Kimi Antonelli during an early-race safety car restart.

Piastri was attacking Antonelli for second place at Turn 1, but contact between the pair sent Antonelli into an unsuspecting Charles Leclerc, who was eliminated from the grand prix.

The stewards deemed that Piastri was at fault, resulting in a fifth-place finish for the Australian.

While Piastri asserted that he was squeezed by Antonelli, Brundle suggested his case was damaged by locking up into the corner.

“The problem for Oscar is that the initial optics didn't look at all good in that he'd locked up, hit Antonelli's rear axle with his front, skittled two cars including one into instant retirement, and gained two places,” Brundle wrote in his column for Sky F1.

“The stewards decided he was 100 per cent at fault and dished out a 10-second penalty and two points on his licence, which leaves him with six of the permitted 12 before a race ban.”

Brundle argued that Piastri could have had his punishment reduced to five seconds by the stewards. 

“That was very harsh, there was a clear mitigating circumstance that he was squeezed by the Mercedes, and that this action contributed to his lock up and contact, It would have been easy to justify reducing that to a five-second penalty - as Oscar said, 'I can't just disappear'.

“Considering it as a typical racing incident would be marginal. No penalty at all, and therefore by default wholly blaming Antonelli, not realistic.”

The penalty dealt a major blow to Piastri's championship aspirations, as he now sits 24 points down on team-mate Norris with three rounds remaining.

RacingNews365 asked F1 fans if they thought the penalty was too harsh, with a majority of fans believing it was.