Oscar Piastri 'could not believe' decision by F1 bosses before Barcelona Grand Prix

Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri has spoken out about the reversed decision that dropped four drivers down a place in the standings five days after the Monaco Grand Prix.

Monaco was littered with pit lane penalties, with five drivers sanctioned for breaking the 60km/h pit lane speed limit.

Piastri was one of four drivers who received five-second penalties for hitting 0.1km/h above the limit, which is lower than other Grands Prix due to the tight confines of the Monte Carlo street circuit.

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Franco Colapinto all suffered penalties for sneaking over the limit while Alpine's Pierre Gasly initially lost his place on the podium as a result of two penalties, one of which was a 0.4km/h breach.

Russell was badly hindered by his penalty and subsequent events that delayed his return but it was Gasly's double-penalty that had the most obvious and immediate impact, dropping him from third to seventh.

Five days after the Monaco GP, F1 race stewards ruled that Gasly's pair of penalties would be reversed after Alpine exercised their right of review.

Gasly was returned to the podium behind race winner Kimi Antonelli and second-placed Hamilton, dropping Isack Hadjar out of the top three and costing Piastri and Racing Bulls duo Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad a place each.

Speaking before the next round at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Piastri was critical of the race stewards' decision.

"Pretty mind blown by the decision because how you can reverse a decision that was ultimately wrong, but when other people have been penalised for the same thing and served the penalty in the race?" the Australian said to Crash.

"How you can then change one penalty, knowing that probably five or six other races have been impacted by that is astonishing.

"I've obviously lost the position, but you can only imagine how George [Russell] is feeling, so I could not believe my eyes.

"I lost the position to Pierre because I served the penalty, so technically I should be P3 but then technically George should be P3 and the whole thing is now a mess, so it's quite the predicament they've got themselves into, and I don't know how you get yourself out of that one."

Hamilton back on the front row in Barcelona

The F1 season arrived in Spain this weekend for its seventh round and Russell responded to his costly penalty a week ago by clinching pole position in Saturday's qualifying session.

Antonelli, his McLaren teammate and the winner of the last five races in a row, will start from P3 in Sunday's race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Sitting on the front row alongside Russell will be fellow Englishman Hamilton, who qualified in the top two for the first time since joining Ferrari.