Charles Leclerc says Kimi Antonelli ought to have shared equal blame for the preliminary contact with Oscar Piastri that took the Ferrari driver out of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Piastri tried to overhaul Antonelli down the within of Flip 1 after a security automotive restart, with Leclerc on the skin in a three-wide second because the trio fought over second place. Leclerc stayed extensive however Antonelli and Piastri got here collectively on the entry into the nook, with the stewards giving Piastri a 10-second time penalty and deciding the Australian was “wholly accountable” for the incident.
“I watched it from afar, from the place I used to be sat within the grass wanting on the large display screen,” Leclerc stated. “It is a disgrace. Collateral injury of an incident between Oscar and Kimi, the place for my part truly Kimi was as a lot in charge as Oscar.
“For me it’s kind of of a 50-50 incident, Oscar being optimistic, Kimi doing the nook like Oscar was by no means there. And which means they collided and touched me. Very irritating contemplating we’re combating for the second place within the constructors’ championship and we’re the one ones that aren’t ending the race. So it may be very troublesome to get that second now.”
With Lewis Hamilton additionally retiring from the race at Interlagos attributable to crash injury sustained in two separate incidents, Ferrari is now fourth within the constructors’ championship, 36 factors behind Mercedes in second.
“It is a powerful weekend, a minimum of a troublesome Sunday,” staff principal Fred Vasseur stated. “I had the sensation that with Charles we have been in an excellent place. He had an excellent begin, an excellent restart, he took margin on the [outside] curb and we’re paying the complete value of the crash between Antonelli and Piastri.
“I do not care about who’s at fault between Piastri and Antonelli, however for positive it was not Charles! And it is powerful as a result of on this battle you possibly can’t surrender factors. When you find yourself giving up factors, you might be giving factors additionally to the others. It is the double penalty and in our case it’s totally harsh.”
