Battling for P3 on Lap 8, Piastri tried a move on the outside of Leclerc as they entered Les Combes, but the Ferrari driver seemingly moved across the McLaren man, resulting in contact and damage to Piastri's MCL40.

However, the stewards ruled no further action on the incident, explaining that since Piastri's front axle was not ahead of Leclerc's at the corner, the Aussie had "no possibility" of an overtake, and that the Ferrari driver did not intend to "crowd" Piastri off the track.

Speaking to GPblog and others post-race, Piastri did not go as far as calling for a penalty on Leclerc, but expressed surprise that he was not at least given a warning. The 25-year-old believes the pair were unlucky to avoid an even bigger crash than the one that saw Piastri compromised on his way to an eventual P5 finish.

Piastri said: "From where I was at, I was on the white line and got squeezed. I think we were very lucky not to have a bigger crash because we touched wheels at the start of the braking zone basically.

Meanwhile, Leclerc's Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton was not so lucky in terms of avoiding punishment. The Briton collided with George Russell on Lap 1, resulting in a DNF for his former Mercedes teammate, and a five-second penalty.

Speaking to media, including GPblog, Hamilton disagreed with the penalty, arguing it was instead a racing incident, but said he would text Russell and apologise.

He said: "I think it was a racing incident, so I didn't think that it should be a penalty, but it is what it is. I'll text him later on because we won't get to see (each other). Everyone rushes out it here. I was thinking that's the last thing you ever want to do is come together with your teammate or with your old team who you highly respect."

Hamilton has however avoided a second penalty after an unsafe release later in the race, instead Ferrari have received a €30,000 fine, meaning the seven-time world champion retains his P4 result.