Piastri stripped of seventh after Mexico clash with Lindblad

Seventh place. Six points. Gone overnight.

Oscar Piastri finished seventh on the road at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with a McLaren carrying heavy damage. The stewards then hit him with a 10-second time penalty for his collision with Arvid Lindblad. He dropped to 15th and lost all his points.

On most weekends, a crash this big would lead the post-race chatter. Not this one. Kimi Antonelli arrived in Mexico needing only a ninth place to seal the title. He finished third and became F1’s youngest ever champion, while Max Verstappen won the race. Piastri spent his evening in a meeting with the stewards.

How the clash unfolded

Piastri’s weekend started badly. A surprise exit in Q2 left him 12th on the grid. On Sunday he recovered, broke into the top 10 early and was running seventh once the pit stops had played out.

Then came a Safety Car. At the restart, Lindblad’s Racing Bulls slipped past and pushed Piastri down to eighth.

He went straight back at the rookie. Lap 59. Turn 1. Around the outside.

The move didn’t stick. Piastri’s front tyre clipped Lindblad’s left rear. The Racing Bulls lifted off the ground and speared into the Turn 2 barriers. Thankfully, Lindblad climbed out unhurt. The wreck brought out the second Safety Car of the afternoon, and Piastri carried on with his damage to take the flag in seventh.

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The stewards’ verdict

The stewards summoned both drivers after the race. The panel looked at video, in-car footage and positioning data, then ruled against the McLaren driver on three points:

• _HOverlap. Piastri tried to pass around the outside, but the stewards found “Car 81 was never fully alongside Car 41” and so he had no right to the corner.
• Defence. Lindblad came off the brakes to hold his position. He didn’t force Piastri off the track and had no duty to leave him room on the outside.
• Avoidance. If Piastri had moved further left after Turn 1, even off the circuit before Turn 2, the cars would have stayed apart.

Two drivers, two stories

Piastri saw a different incident. He told The Race Lindblad closed the door late and squeezed him so wide he had nowhere left to go, with their wheels interlocking. He also stood by the move itself. Speaking to reporters, as PlanetF1 reported, he said: “I was in a genuine race with him.”

Lindblad gave little away. He wanted to watch the footage before passing judgement.

Neutral voices mostly sided with the stewards. On Sky F1, Nico Rosberg backed the penalty and argued Piastri was never properly on the outside.

My view? The decision follows the guidelines to the letter. Without a full overlap, you don’t get the corner. You might call 10 seconds harsh for a fight over seventh, and Piastri has a fair grievance about the late squeeze. Still, the overlap rule is no secret. Going round the outside of a car without being fully alongside puts the burden on the attacker. Every time.

Who gained from the reshuffle

Every driver from eighth to 11th moved up a place. Alpine gained most. Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly now sit seventh and ninth in the classification, worth eight points between them. Racing Bulls took four for Liam Lawson’s eighth. Audi picked up a point as Gabriel Bortoleto rose to 10th.

Racing Bulls had a rough deal here. They lost Lindblad’s car in the crash, then watched Alpine take more from the penalty in their scrap for fifth in the constructors’ championship. Racing Bulls still hold a 29-point advantage.

A pattern Piastri won’t enjoy

Mexico goes down as Piastri’s fourth pointless round of 2026, after Australia, Hungary and Azerbaijan. For a driver who fought for the title a year ago, the numbers make grim reading.

Next stop, São Paulo. Interlagos holds bad memories too. Twelve months ago, Piastri picked up a 10-second penalty thereafter a lunge at Antonelli into Turn 1 on a Safety Car restart.

A restart, a Turn 1 move, 10 seconds. Sound familiar?