Brazil GP: True culprit behind Piastri-Antonelli-Leclerc crash revealed

After the debris from Gabriel Bortoleto's DNF and Lewis Hamilton's incidents with Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto had been cleared, the track went green again on lap 6 with Lando Norris leading the field.

The current championship leader timed the restart perfectly, with Antonelli caught napping providing an opportunity for Leclerc and Piastri, both of whom pounced on immediately.

With Leclerc taking the high line and Piastri taking the inside, the Italian was left to hold his own down the middle, a very precarious position, one that the Italian rookie proved to lack the necessary experience to handle properly.

Sensing an opportunity to emerge from the Senna esses in P2, Piastri went into full attack mode. Could the championship that once seemed like such a certainty, but was now slipping through his fingers, pried away by Norris' unrelenting form, have played a role in his decision? A good question, albeit it's one that only the Australian driver can answer.

Piastri's lunge up the inside of Antonelli was one that Leclerc, the casualty from the other two's entanglement, defined as "optimistic."

Perhaps Antonelli felt the same way, because after looking twice in his mirrors, once to Piastri, and another to Leclerc, he fixed his eyes on the track ahead, only to then focus on the apex into 1, a clear sign he never expected to have a McLaren car up the inside there.

A clear misjudgement by the Italian rookie? After all, the Australian was fully alongside at the braking point, warranting therefore, at least some racing room, which admittedly could have disadvantaged Antonelli on the entry into Turn 2 forcing him to yield P2 and potentially P3 as well.

Footage from Piastri's onboard, though, shows that Antonelli had manage to place almost half of his Mercedes ahead at the apex, and as clearly stated by the Stewards in their explanation for the Australian driver's penalty, Piastri did not meet the requirements laid out in the Drivers' guidelines to put his car there.

Was Antonelli racing with the regulations in mind, whereas Piastri simply went racing for position? In that case, the Italian youngter proved his cunning, and Piastri his naivety instead, which in turn highlights that the current parameters of the guidelines still have ways to go.

Perhaps a tweak to the 'first at the apex' rule would yield better racing and less incidents. In the end, is it not better to ensure that when a driver is up alongside a rival at the braking phase, that they are also entitled to racing room and thus safe passage throughout the rest of the corner?

When drivers are fighting, not for position, but for being first at the apex, then clearly the guidelines have overstepped the boundaries, and from governing racing, they are now interfering with it.

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