F1 driver threatens Oscar Piastri after dramatic incident

Oscar Piastri has had his worst qualifying result of the year after a controversial incident that left a rival driver furious with the Australian.

Mercedes young gun Kimi Antonelli has threatened to be “aggressive” with Oscar Piastri after a dramatic day at the Miami Grand Prix.

The Australian recorded his worst qualifying result of the year on Sunday morning with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking pole position with a storming final flying lap.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished P2, while Piastri dropped down to fourth when Antonelli’s final lap saw him jump up to P3.

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They will line up on the second row together and fireworks are expected after Piastri pushed Antonelli wide at the opening turn of Saturday’s sprint race, which was won by Norris.

Antonelli had taken pole for the sprint race, making him the youngest driver to start in the top slot in any F1 race, but he was outdueled by Piastri and ended up finishing the race tenth before he was elevated to P7 following late penalties handed out across the grid.

It does not take an expert to work out who the Italian was talking about when asked on Sky Sports about his plans for Turn 1 on Monday morning.

“I am more clear on what I can do on Lap 1 but it’s a different starting position,” he said.

“It will be important to play it smart, aggressive as well — a good amount. And we will see what happens at the front and I will take every opportunity.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was in a tussle with Oscar Piastri at Turn 1. Photo by Hector Vivas / GETTY IMAGES.

Piastri admitted after qualifying that his final flying lap had been “scruffy” after he finished Q2 with the quickest time heading into the final session.

“Just fell out of the rhythm a little bit, I think,” Piastri said.

“My best lap of qualifying was the first lap of Q2, so peaked a bit early some may say.

“But yeah couldn’t get in the rhythm in Q3. The car was great and really deserved more than I had, unfortunately.

“But yeah both laps in Q3 were quite scruffy and that’s the price you pay.

“It’s going to be tight at the front, we’ve just seen how close qualifying has been.

“It’s going to be tough tomorrow to make progress. I think you can make progress here.

“The weather is still not the straightforward around here either, so I think we can make progress. It is just going to be difficult to do so.”

The earlier sprint race incident at Turn 1 had Mercedes boss Toto Wolff blowing up and Antonelli was also not happy.

“For sure it was a shame, because obviously it was a great opportunity,” Antonelli said about the incident.

Max Verstappen (C), winner of the pole position, stands alongside Lando Norris (L) and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (R). Photo by Chandan Khanna / AFP)

“A bit annoyed about lap one, with how it went. It seems like it’s like this, that you can do basically whatever you want. So it’s good to know for the future.

“Definitely it’s a shame but luckily we have a qualifying to bounce back.”

When asked about the incident, Wolff said: “We are not setting a good precedent. You just release the brake and push the other guy off.

“You need to leave a car’s space but it’s creeped in that in Turn 1, he pushed him out.

“It’s Kimi’s sixth race and he’s learned the lesson this is what you need to do. I don’t entirely agree with that but that’s how we’ve allowed it for a few years now.”

After Norris’ sprint race win and Verstappen’s drive to secure pole position in Miami, the world championship battle looks incredibly tight.

Piastri is the man to catch with 106 points ahead of Norris (97) and Verstappen (87).

Verstappen grabbed pole position by just 0.065 of a second ahead of Norris.

McLaren will still be the team to beat. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images.

There was more disappointment for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in his first season with Ferrari as he was eliminated in Q2 and the Briton will start in 12th place.

Verstappen’s aggressive approach in the first sector of his lap paid off and gives him a chance for a third win in four years at Miami.

“It has been a great qualifying. We improved the car a tiny amount too. Q1, Q2, Q3 — just improving every run, trying to find the limit. It worked out well. I’m very happy to be on pole,” said the Dutchman.

“Race pace, I don’t know, we have to wait and see with the weather, to be honest the colder the better. No one has really done any long running with the sprint race here.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was a disappointing eighth, having never contended for the front row, and he could not disguise his emotions.

“The feeling is not great. But it’s the way it is. It’s just frustrating because when you do your best and the best is P8, with a Ferrari it hurts and the two Williams in front of us, I didn’t do any mistakes... we are just not fast enough,” he said.

Adding to the Scuderia’s woes — Hamilton didn’t even make it to the final session.

“We will keep trying. We are only six races in but we are struggling big time,” said the British driver who moved from Mercedes in the off-season.

“We are trying our hardest not to make big set-up changes but no matter what we do it’s so inconsistent every time we go out.

“We have problems with brakes, problems with this instability that we are struggling with and we are generally not quick enough. Just to get through to Q3 is tough for us.

— with AFP

Originally published as F1 driver threatens Oscar Piastri after dramatic incident