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 automobile restart, with Leclerc on the skin in a three-wide second because the trio fought over second place. Leclerc stayed large 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 massive display,” Leclerc mentioned. “It is a disgrace. Collateral injury of an incident between Oscar and Kimi, the place in my view truly Kimi was as a lot guilty 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 is going to be very troublesome to get that second now.”
With Lewis Hamilton additionally retiring from the race at Interlagos on account of crash injury sustained in two separate incidents, Ferrari is now fourth within the constructors’ championship, 36 factors behind Mercedes in second.
“It is a robust weekend, a minimum of a tricky Sunday,” staff principal Fred Vasseur mentioned. “I had the sensation that with Charles we had been in a superb place. He had a superb begin, a superb restart, he took margin on the [outside] curb and we’re paying the total worth of the crash between Antonelli and Piastri.
“I do not care about who’s at fault between Piastri and Antonelli, however for certain it was not Charles! And it is robust as a result of on this combat you’ll be able to’t surrender factors. If 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 is very harsh.”
