Oscar Piastri raises concern after huge Charles Leclerc near-miss

Oscar Piastri has raised concerns about Charles Leclerc escaping a penalty in the Belgian Grand Prix, after being left the "bare minimum of space" in their contact.

At Les Combes as the Australian tried to pass the Monegasque for third place, Leclerc appeared not to leave the required room for Piastri on the outside, with the McLaren sustaining severe damage to the right-hand side of the floor and bargeboard area.

Despite being placed under investigation, Leclerc escaped any sanction from the stewards, after it was adjudged that he did not have enough of his car ahead of Leclerc's to warrant being granted racing room.

Leclerc went on to finish in second with Piastri taking fifth on the road, but could yet be promoted to fourth if Lewis Hamilton incurs a penalty for an unsafe release after he made contact with a Ferrari mechanic in the pit-lane.

Reflecting on the incident, in which McLaren estimated a loss of five to 10-points of downforce, Piastri felt that the "incentive" of knowing the "bare minimum" of space was available was "not nice."

"I mean, from where I was sat, I was on the white line, and got squeezed, and we were firstly very lucky not to have a bigger crash because we touched wheels at the start of the braking zone," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365. 

"I don't really know where I was supposed to go, but I was not saying that it needed to be a penalty necessarily, but at least a black and white flag, or something like that.

"Because if we think that is fine, it is one thing having touches like that, but even just the incentive of knowing that you can leave anyone the absolute bare minimum of space and get away with it, that is not the nicest place to be. 

"In the first stint, the damage was the big player because I lost a decent bit of downforce, as it impacted the balance of the car a fair bit, so I was struggling a lot from then on until we could change the front-wing [flap] and compensate a little bit. 

"The second stint looked a fair bit better, and the car was very tricky to drive in clean air, and then when Lewis got ahead, I was in the dirty air, and it was incredibly tough.

"I dropped back a second-and-a-half or two seconds, and the pace stabilised again, but even then, the car was still damaged, so it was definitely a factor, but we looked very competitive at the start of the stints, and maybe not quite as good at the end."