"Mindblown" Oscar Piastri warns Pierre Gasly penalty reversal sets "murky" F1 precedent

McLaren Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri says he was “mind blown” by the decision to cancel Pierre Gasly’s Monaco Grand Prix speeding penalties and hand him back his third place.

Piastri was more involved in the saga than any other driver bar George Russell, having picked up a speeding penalty himself in the race and also lost a position to Friday’s about turn on the Gasly penalties.

He made a pit stop that he didn’t plan to make in order to serve the penalty so it would not impact the final result under a safety car finish, and in the process he lost a spot to Gasly.

He then gained fourth in the original results when the Alpine driver was penalised, only to lose it again on Friday and drop back to fifth when the right of review decision came through.

"Pretty mind blown by the decision,” he said when asked by Crash.net for his thoughts on losing a place. “Because how you can reverse a decision that was ultimately wrong, but when other people have been penalised for the same thing and served the penalty in the race.

“How you can then change one penalty, knowing that probably five or six other races have been impacted by that is astonishing. I've obviously lost the position, but you can only imagine how George is feeling, so I could not believe my eyes.”

Regarding the impact of his own penalty he said: “I lost the position to Pierre because I served the penalty, so technically I should be P3 but then technically George should be P3 and the whole thing is now a mess, so it's quite the predicament they've got themselves into, and I don't know how you get yourself out of that one.

“Because now the precedent, as it is, is you don't serve the penalty, you take it to court, wait probably a few months to decide the race, and who the hell wants to go racing like that? So perplexed is the word I would use.

“I think before you could kind of say bad luck, it was wrong, but it was wrong for everybody, and kind of everyone was treated the same.

“Now it's very, very murky, how you judge that. So obviously, I don't think the race result will be cancelled, but yes, it's quite the situation that's unfolded.”

Meanwhile Piastri will start Sunday's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix from seventh having been in the top three in all three practice sessions. However he doesn’t believe that McLaren had lost form when it mattered, suggesting that others improved.

“I think just the others were a bit more competitive, and it's very, very tight,” he said. “The gap to Russell is a little bit bigger than what it has been through the weekend, I think we've seen this year.

“Mercedes have normally kept a bit in their pocket through practice, so that wasn't a huge surprise. There was a bit more out there, I would say. I need to understand where I lost time in the final sector, because my lap was coming pretty good.

“So, yes, there was more in it, but I think in these kinds of conditions it's always a little bit the case.”

Regarding prospects for a race that will be dominated by tyres he said: “We'll have to wait and see. It's going to be tough. We, we felt like maybe we could get close to Mercedes over one lap, or certainly be able to challenge for the front row or the top three, but over a race distance you don't really have anywhere to hide, so we'll see tomorrow.

“I think Mercedes are going to be incredibly strong. Ferrari also looked very good, they looked very strong in all the corners, just suffering on the straights. So yeah, I think they're going to be tough to get past as well, but stranger things have happened.”