Antonelli was ‘very lucky’ in Piastri collision as he claims career-best Grand Prix result in Sao Paulo

Kimi Antonelli acknowledged he was "lucky" after being caught up in a collision with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, as the rookie netted his best ever Grand Prix result with second place.

Antonelli performed strongly throughout the weekend at Interlagos, starting on the front row alongside eventual race winner Lando Norris in both the Sprint and Grand Prix, but his chance of a podium finish was thrown into jeopardy after a close call with Piastri.

At the Safety Car restart, Piastri got a better launch than the 19-year-old and tried to pass him on the inside of Turn 1, with Leclerc also choosing to join in the battle on Antonelli’s right-hand side.

The McLaren driver locked up midway through his overtake attempt, driving into the Mercedes and ricocheting Antonelli into Leclerc. With damage including a missing tyre, the Ferrari retired from the race and Piastri later received a 10-second time penalty for the collision.

“I had a bad restart – I was a bit too aggressive on the power and got some wheel spin and lost momentum on the way to Turn 1,” Antonelli explained. “We were three wide and to be fair, on the braking Oscar was not fully alongside.

“The thing is, I was in a bit of a difficult position because I had Oscar on the inside and Charles on the outside. I tried my best to give space to both. I didn’t really see the crash – I just know Oscar locked up and at the apex I got hit.

“I ended up going into Charles, which was a shame because I ended up crashing with him and he had to retire. It’s not what I wanted but on my side, I was very lucky to keep going. I need to check whether the car had damage. It felt a bit weird afterwards but we kept our heads down and managed to finish P2.”

Coming away from the crash relatively unscathed, the Mercedes driver went on to secure his second podium of the season, improving on a P3 finish from the Canadian Grand Prix.

However, the remainder of the race was far from straightforward as he came under immense pressure from Max Verstappen on the final laps, forcing him to put up a strong defence to cross the line just 0.362s ahead of the Red Bull.

Reflecting on the late battle, he said: “I don’t know where this guy came from to be honest! I didn’t see it coming. The last lap was very stressful with Max coming with fresher tyres. With free air we were able to maintain a decent pace and finish P2.

“I found my rhythm. Obviously when he was closing in I raised the pace and started to push a bit more. With these cars, in dirty air it’s a bit difficult to follow so I tried to use that to my advantage and it paid off.

“It was definitely the most complete weekend of the season so far. I think we’ve finally been putting things together. I’m just happy. I think we maximised the performance, the result, and got some good points in the constructors. We need to keep pushing.”