Oscar Piastri under investigation after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix incident

Piastri na P2 in Sprint Shootout op Spa-Francorchamps — Photo: © LAT Images

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Piastri under investigation after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix incident

It will be a nervous wait for the young McLaren driver

Edward Hardy

Saturday 25 November 2023 17:17 Updated: 19:59

Oscar Piastri was left facing a grid penalty for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after the Australian was summoned to the stewards for allegedly impeding Pierre Gasly – but was later cleared after an investigation.

The Formula 1 rookie was accused of blocking the Frenchman at the end of Q3.

As things stand, Gasly will line up in P10, having set a best lap time of 1:24.548s, but the Alpine star had to avoid Piastri while going flat out through turn three.

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Although the 22-year-old was tight-lipped over the incident, Piastri did admit that the session was far from perfect for McLaren.

Pierre Gasly will not have been happy with Oscar Piastri's actions in Q3

The Australian faces a nervous wait to see if a penalty is coming his way

Piastri: A lot of mistakes in qualifying

“It’s extremely tight this weekend," he said after qualifying. "It’s been a bit of a messy one, pace has been there, just a lot of mistakes and last lap I made a little bit of a mistake as well but it would have been quite a last corner to get to the front.

“Happy with that, car is very quick this weekend, nice turnaround from Vegas for us. Happy to be back in the top three.

“I think practice, the pace was there, just there was a couple of big mistakes in every lap.

“I think I went into qualifying and I hadn’t done a clean lap all weekend. Made life a bit more difficult for myself.

“Q1, messy, Q2 got it together finally and it was pretty good in Q3 so happy with that. Close but not quite close enough.”

Max Verstappen McLaren Formula 1 Oscar Piastri Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Pierre Gasly