Near miss on the eighth lap
“It was all calculated, right?” Max Verstappen in the podium room at the end of the Belgian GP joked with Charles Leclerc about the contact between the Ferrari driver and Oscar Piastri before the Les Combes esses at the end of the Kemmel straight during the eighth lap of the Belgian GP.
The McLaren driver had pulled alongside Leclerc on the outside and was already on the white line. Under braking, Leclerc widened slightly to the left to set up the corner better, and there was a contact between the two cars which incredibly did not lead to serious consequences.
“To be honest, we actually went really too close – said Charles Leclerc in the press conference – fortunately the contact had no consequences for my race or his.” The Stewards decided not to penalize Leclerc because he did not deliberately seek contact with Piastri.
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The McLaren driver was not pleased that Leclerc did not even receive a warning, a decision that raised more than a few eyebrows, also in light of the penalty instead inflicted on Lewis Hamilton for the collision with George Russell: “I was already on the white line – said Piastri as reported by espn.com – I think we were very lucky to avoid a more serious incident, given that the wheels touched at the beginning of the braking zone. Where was I supposed to go? I’m not saying there necessarily had to be a penalty, but at least a black and white flag or something. A contact of that type is one thing, but the idea of being able to leave others the bare minimum space and get away with it is certainly not a good message“.
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