Antonelli started from pole position for the first time in his career but found Piastri alongside on the run to the opening corner.
With the inside line, the Australian claimed the race lead as the Mercedes driver left the road, claiming he was pushed off the track.
It was a similar incident to that seen at the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, though Antonelli was unable to cut the track and rejoin as Max Verstappen had on that occasion.
Officials quickly noted the clash in Miami before electing to take no further action, prompting Wolff to warn of the message that is sending drivers.
“I don’t think we are setting good precedents,” the Mercedes boss warned.
“You are just releasing the brake and then you are just pushing the other guy off.
“It’s for the junior formulas also. I think you need to leave a car’s space.
“It’s kind of crept in, Turn 1, you push them out.
“It’s Kimi’s sixth race and he’s learnt a lesson that 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. ”
It saw Antonelli slip from first on the grid to fourth exiting the opening corner.
“It was a great opportunity but bit annoyed about lap one with how it went,” Antonelli told Sky Sports.
“I mean, it seems like it’s like this, that you can basically do whatever you want – so it’s good to know for the future.”
Piastri had managed to get alongside the Mercedes courtesy of a better launch from second on the grid.
From there, with the inside line, he held the advantage in a move he suggested would likely have won him the race under normal circumstances.
“I had a really good start,” Piastri said.
“We probably both braked a little bit later than we should have.
“There was a bit of contact, but I pulled it up still pretty comfortably.
“That move, it would have won me the Sprint if there was no Safety Car, so I think it was a good first lap.”
Out of the first corner, Piastri led from teammate Lando Norris, the pair split by around two seconds for much of the opening stanza.
As conditions dried, Norris was able to draw closer before staying on track an extra lap as his teammate swapped to slick tyres.
It proved a decisive and fortunate moment with the Safety Car deployed as Norris finally exited the lane, handing him the lead as Piastri was forced to slow on track.
“The reaction when the Safety Car came out was ‘not again’,” Piastri said, having lost out to Norris because of a Safety Car last year.
“There’s not much you can do in that circumstance.
“I knew I had a pretty comfortable gap behind so I wasn’t taking too many risks, and I could see that I was a little bit faster than Lando.
“I thought I had that one pretty much under control once we pitted and then, yeah, obviously the timing of the Safety Car was unfortunate, but frustrating in the moment.
“I think I’m leaving that Sprint knowing that I did everything I could and everything that was in my control was well executed, and that’s all I can ask for.”
While Piastri ended up finishing second to Norris, Antonelli slipped to 11th on track, 10th once a 10-second penalty was applied to Max Verstappen.
That was for a clash with Antonelli in the pit lane after Red Bull released the Dutchman into the path of the Mercedes.
It left Verstappen with front wing damage while Antonelli was unable to enter his pit box and instead had to head back out on track and return to the lane next time by.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted the incident was a result of human error.
“If it was the main race that would have been seriously annoying,” Wolff said of the clash.
“I’m surprised the total lack of judgement there.
“It wasn’t even close with releasing without any security concerns.
“Somebody panicked.”
Red Bull has had a spate of pit lane issues of late, with a gantry issue wreaking havoc during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
“They’ve all been different incidents, so I mean you cannot really compare these things,” Verstappen said of his tangle with Antonelli.
“We all don’t want that to happen, but it happens. It’s something that we need to investigate.
“I’m just happy that no one got injured,” he added.
“With these cars, if you hit someone, it’s not great.
“I think it was super clear right what happened, so there’s not much more for me to add.”
The time penalty dropped Verstappen, who was fourth on the road at the chequered flag, to 17th in the classification.
Discussion about this post