Why Piastri avoided impeding penalty - and how Gasly helped

The McLaren driver was summoned to the stewards for allegedly impeding Alpine’s Pierre Gasly during Q3 as the pair had a near-miss at Turn 4. 

Piastri was on a slow lap and moved to the right of the track as he entered Turn 4 at the same time Gasly, on a fast lap, came through Turn 3. 

However, Piastri was cleared of any wrongdoing and he will start from his P3 grid slot for Sunday’s grand prix. 

The stewards revealed that Gasly, who qualified 10th, said he was not impeded. Data showed Gasly remained 100% on throttle and was able to set a personal-best mini sector. 

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 81 (Oscar Piastri), the driver of Car 10 (Pierre Gasly), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence,” the stewards noted. 

“Telemetry of Car 10 showed the throttle was at 100% when Car 10 approached and overtook Car 81. The driver of Car 10 stated he had to make a minor direction change but it did not affect his lap. 

“The driver of Car 10 stated that he was not impacted by Car 81, and the data showed he achieved his fastest mini-sector time at the point.” 

On qualifying third, Piastri said: “I was struggling a little bit in the first two parts of quali, or certainly the first part.

“I think before qualifying I hadn’t done a lap without quite a major mistake this weekend. So I was struggling to get everything together. I think I did a much better job of that in qualifying.”