Kimi Antonelli pinpoints possible reason behind Oscar Piastri's disastrous crash in the F1 Brazilian GP sprint

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli has pointed out a possible reason for F1 championship contender Oscar Piastri's crash during the semi-wet Brazilian Grand Prix Sprint Race. The rookie highlighted race leader Lando Norris's mistake in the same turn before, which he felt led to the lack of grip for the drivers behind.

The Sprint race began with the Top 4 positions unchanged - pole-sitter Lando Norris led the race, with Antonelli in P2, Oscar Piastri in P3, and George Russell in P4. Lewis Hamilton was one of the biggest gainers into Turn 1, going from P11 to P8, while Max Verstappen gained one position to overtake Fernando Alonso for P5.

Barring the pre-Turn 1, lap 1 overtakes and contact between Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman, there was no significant action. However, disaster struck on lap 6 of 24, with three drivers losing control of their cars in the damp conditions in the same corner of the track.

Oscar Piastri was the first of the three. The McLaren driver, who was in P3, took too much kerb in the left-hander Turn 3, lost the rear of his MCL39, and spun into the barriers.

Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto's cars after their crashes at the F1 Grand Prix of Brazil - Sprint - Source: Getty

Surprisingly, two more drivers, Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine's Franco Colapinto, had the same and found themselves in the barriers behind Piastri. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was between the two McLaren drivers, was informed about the incident by his race engineer after the safety car came out.

"So maybe low grip through Turn 3 had three cars go off track," said his Mercedes race engineer, Peter Bonnington.

In response, Antonelli pointed out Lando Norris' mistake in Turn 3, where the McLaren driver went a tad deep on the kerb and sprayed water on the racing line.

"Norris took a lot of kerb, and a lot of water went on line."

This is the second Sprint Race in a row where Oscar Piastri has DNFed. The first was during the United States GP Sprint, where he collided with Norris on lap 1, prematurely ending their race.

Oscar Piastri suffers a major blow in the F1 championship battle

Oscar Piastri had lost the championship lead to Lando Norris after the Mexico GP, which the latter dominantly won. The Australian driver entered the Brazilian GP weekend trailing Norris by one point.

However, the gap has increased to nine points after Norris' victory in the sprint race, which earned him eight points. Moreover, Max Verstappen, who finished in P4, secured five points, reducing the gap to Piastri from 35 points to 30.

At one point in the season, Piastri had a 104-point gap to the Red Bull driver. But the McLaren driver has struggled after the summer break. His formidable consistency seems to have disappeared, with his last podium finish coming two months ago.

The action in São Paulo will return with the qualifying session for the feature race at 2 pm ET today.

Edited by Yash Kotak