Oscar Piastri’s tough Mexico Grand Prix weekend has ended in point-less fashion, after the McLaren Formula 1 driver copped a penalty for his collision with Arvid Lindblad.

Piastri’s 60-strong streak of Q3 appearances (including sprints) ended at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as he qualified a lowly 12th, which paved the way for his troubles in the midfield.

Piastri did gain three spots at the start, subsequently overtaking Franco Colapinto and Lindblad to grab seventh place. The Australian led the rookie by 13 seconds when Valtteri Bottas crashed out, but the subsequent safety car and standing start reduced that gap to next to nothing – and Lindblad actually moved ahead at lights out.

Piastri pressured his rival for 12 laps before attacking him around the outside in Turn 1; now on the inside line for Turn 2, he didn’t back off early enough and hit the Racing Bulls’ rear-left wheel with his front-right. Lindblad ended up in the wall.

“I tried to go up the inside actually, and then he shut the door very, very late,” the McLaren man recounted. “So I had to kind of avoid him and end up on the outside.

“I tried from there, and obviously he pushed me pretty wide, and at that point I knew I was not going to completely overtake. So I was trying to get out, but he pushed me so far wide that I couldn’t go any further left, and we just interlocked wheels, and that was the end result, of course.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Asked if he was far enough alongside that he should have been given racing room based on driving guidelines, Piastri responded: “It’s always tricky. I was very close to alongside, and I was kind of there because I was avoiding a crash in the first place.

“A tricky one, but I think when we actually made contact, we were both going straight. It wasn’t like I tried to stick my nose into Turn 2 and stuck my nose where I shouldn’t. I was trying to concede the position, and I was already off the track, so I couldn’t really do much more than that.”

Meanwhile, Lindblad wouldn’t comment on the incident, having not been able to watch a replay, but still made his thoughts clear: “In the end, we were fast, I was in a genuine race with him, he was stuck behind me for over 10 laps. I was committed for racing for the position, and I wasn’t just going to let him easily drive around the outside of me.”

The FIA’s stewards took a dim view of Piastri’s driving, handing him a 10-second penalty that dropped him from seventh to outside the points-scoring positions.

“On the approach to Turn 1, the driver of Car 81 attempted an overtake on the outside of Car 41,” the stewards’ report read. “Car 81 was never fully alongside Car 41 so was not able to claim the right to the corner. Through Turn 1, the driver of Car 41 defended his position by releasing the brakes, however does not force Car 81 off the track, allowing racing room on the outside – which he is not required to do.

“The Stewards determined that the collision could have been avoided if the driver of Car 81 had moved further to the left after Turn 1, even if this involved leaving the track prior to Turn 2.”

Having endured a tough season, Piastri will be disappointed – all the more after nursing a damaged McLaren to the finish line.

“I tried to get a number on how much damage I had,” he said. “I could kind of sense in Tom [Stallard, race engineer]’s voice that we had a lot of damage. When I looked at the car afterwards, it was pretty significant, so it was hard work. I think we had enough pace to be able to hang on reasonably comfortably in the end, but yeah, not the easiest last 10 laps for sure.”

Additional reporting by Stuart Codling and Ronald Vording

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Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto have both been given post-race penalties which have dropped them out of the points and resulted in Haas debutant Ryo Hirakawa scoring on his Formula 1 debut at the Mexico Grand Prix.

Both Alpine drivers faced post-race investigations with the FIA stewards for failing to slow under yellow flags during the Mexico City race. In the provisional results Colapinto finished in eighth place while his team-mate Gasly took 10th.

Gasly was given a stop-and-go penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under double waved yellows – which was converted into a 30-second penalty post-race – while Colapinto was given a 10s penalty after the race, having failed to slow sufficiently under single waved yellows.

The Argentinean driver was at risk of the same punishment as Gasly, but was cleared of wrongdoing in a double yellow sector because “there was sufficient doubt that the driver had sufficient warning in order to comply with the requirements, so did not determine that there was any breach in relation to that sector,” according to the FIA stewards report.

In the final Mexico GP classification it dropped Gasly down to 17th place with Colapinto demoted to 15th place.

Ryo Hirakawa, Haas F1 Team

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Coupled with a post-race 10s penalty for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for clashing with Arvid Lindblad, it sees the trio of drivers drop out of the points-paying positions.

Liam Lawson has moved up to seventh place, originally taken by Piastri, while Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto has jumped from outside of the points entirely into eighth place.

The same situation occurs for Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar who moves from 12th to ninth, while F1 debutant Hirakawa completes the points in 10th place for Haas.

The Japanese driver was a late call-up for the US team after it opted to bench Esteban Ocon for unspecified reasons on Friday night, giving the opportunity to Hirakawa to make his F1 race bow.

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Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc has delved into his controversial Mexico Grand Prix drive, more specifically the way he snatched – and retained – the lead from Lewis Hamilton.

Leclerc challenged his polesitting team-mate for the lead at the start, with Hamilton holding him off over the first sequence of corners. The Monegasque then launched an attack around the outside of Turn 4, but while he was ahead at the apex, both cars went deep and ended up fully off the track.

Hamilton trundled back on track, losing a position to Max Verstappen, while Leclerc cut Turn 5 and stayed out in front. Having gained a lasting advantage from exceeding track limits, he was expected to let the sister car back through, but that would have entailed giving up a position to the Red Bull too.

In the end, Leclerc remained ahead of his rivals, copping a five-second penalty for the infringement.

“Lewis and I both tried to brake very late, we both didn’t make the corner, I obviously cut the track,” the Monegasque recounted.

“Eventually then after Turn 5 there was Max in between, which made the situation more confusing. And speaking with the team, I didn’t really have a clear feedback, and I think it was just confusing enough to keep the position, and I was expecting some kind of penalty. Then we paid the penalty.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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“We spoke briefly with the team to try and understand [what to do]. I asked ‘What should I do now?’ It’s always very tricky – obviously in that situation you have to do something, but is it second, is it third? At the end I kept going. Obviously it’s going to be a bit of a talking point, for sure, next briefing.”

The decision drew the ire of Hamilton, who repeatedly complained to race engineer Carlo Santi on the radio. “The problem is he’s got clean air, and doesn’t have to manage like the rest of us. He should just give the place back,” he said of Leclerc, before doubling down: “The stewards are basically handing Charles this win.”

Regardless of Leclerc’s controversial move to retain the lead, the intra-team incident came amid occasional friction between the Ferrari drivers this year.

Consequently asked about the rules of engagement at Ferrari, the 29-year-old played the situation down: “I mean, we are fighting for the win, so of course there’s going to be very little margin left from him and from me. [In] the end, we both did a mistake going into Turn 4, it’s not like we had contact or whatsoever. We both went straight and that gave the opportunity for Max to overtake.

“I don’t think it should be that much of a talking point. Of course it was close, Turn 1 to 3 was very close, but I was expecting it, [in a] fight for the lead. For [Turn] 5 we both made a mistake, I paid with a penalty, then you can argue whether it’s enough or not. And Lewis then paid out of [Turn] 5 with Max.”

Pressed on whether he and Hamilton needed more rules going forward, Leclerc pondered: “We will talk about it obviously. I don’t know if he was very unhappy with what I did because I felt like it was very much on the limit also what he did. I think he was maybe more angry with the whole situation, how the situation was dealt in [Turns] 4-5 with the penalty, etc. So this is something we’ll talk about for sure.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

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From then on, Leclerc worked at pulling away from Verstappen in an attempt to mitigate the impact of his penalty. He brought the gap up to 5.243s at the end of lap 24, but by the time he pitted – with the Red Bull following him into the pits – the Dutchman had cut his deficit by a few tenths.

In the end, this made no difference to the outcome. Leclerc’s pitstop was 6.3s longer than Verstappen’s, with 1.3s unaccounted for by the penalty, so the four-time world champion comfortably took the lead.

Leclerc’s race went from bad to worse at the second start, following the red flag for Valtteri Bottas’ crash, with a hefty lock-up that damaged the SF-26’s tyres – especially the front-left.

“I think we had quite a good pace, but unfortunately on the second restart everything went a bit more difficult,” he lamented.

“There was quite a lot of marbles on the right side of the track, and when I went on the brake, even though I didn’t put a massive amount of brake pressure, I locked up straight away and I went to the cord of the tyres. So the last stint was very tricky.”

Leclerc consequently ended up fourth under the chequered flag – still scoring a sixth consecutive top-four finish.

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Lewis Hamilton has called for “serious talks” at Ferrari following his clash with team-mate Charles Leclerc in Formula 1’s Mexico Grand Prix.

Polesitter Hamilton was challenged by Leclerc from third after front-row starter George Russell lost momentum ahead of Turn 1. The seven-time world champion narrowly held off the sister car in the first corner sequence, but Leclerc launched an attack around the outside of Turn 4; as both cars went off, the Monegasque cut Turn 5 and retained the lead, while Hamilton lost momentum and was overtaken by Max Verstappen.

Leclerc’s race unravelled as he got a five-second penalty for the opening-lap incident – he did pull a five-second gap on Verstappen ahead of their first pitstop, but spent 6.3s more in the pitlane and lost the lead; at the second start following the red flag for Valtteri Bottas’ crash, he flat-spotted his tyres.

Meanwhile, Hamilton never found a way back past the Red Bull and finished second, eight tenths away from victory.

Part of the reason why Leclerc didn’t just cede the position back to Hamilton at the start was the fact he would have had to let Verstappen through, but this still infuriated the Briton.

“The problem is he’s got clean air, and doesn’t have to manage like the rest of us. He should just give the place back,” Hamilton told his race engineer on the radio. A few laps later, he doubled down: “The stewards are basically handing Charles this win.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

By the time he was speaking in parc ferme, Hamilton had cooled down, but he still made it clear he was unhappy with the way things unfolded at Ferrari in Mexico.

“A tough day,” he said. “I think we had the pace to win today, but it wasn’t meant to be. We’ll take it offline and figure out what we can do in the background.

“In the drivers’ briefing, we discussed, as soon as you go off in Turn 1, you have to give the position back. Last year, I got a 10-second penalty for that same move that he did,” the Ferrari driver added, referring to his own attempt to overtake Verstappen around the outside in Turn 4 in 2025. “But ultimately, it was that that lost us the win today. I think we have to have some serious talks behind the scenes, for sure.”

Hamilton hailed Kimi Antonelli’s “pretty phenomenal” achievement as F1’s youngest-ever world champion and will now seek to challenge his Mercedes successor in the 2027 season.

“The good thing is the team are working really hard, we’ve really improved our car, it’s great to be here,” he continued. “We’re on the old engine this weekend as well, so good result, good points, shame we didn’t get a win – but you know, some you win, some you lose.

“I’m hoping next year we have an engine to be able to actually compete with them – I mean, this year, they were just flying past us on most of the straights through the year, so if we can fix that and keep this car, the base of it, I think we can do really great. So I’m relying on the team, I have 100% faith in them.”

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