The FIA stewards have explained the penalty given to Oscar Piastri at the British Grand Prix, which cost the Australian driver victory on Sunday.
Piastri’s McLaren teammate and championship rival Lando Norris benefited to win a chaotic, rain-influenced race at Silverstone.
That’s because Piastri, who led most of the race, was handed a ten-second penalty.
The Aussie was judged to have braked erratically while leading the pack during a safety-car restart.
Piastri had led the race through wet-dry-wet conditions and several big incidents.
But when forced to serve his ten-second penalty during the final pit stop for dry tyres, Norris capitalised from second place to take the lead.
The victory for Norris closes the gap at the top of the driver’s championship to just eight points.
After winning his first-ever British Grand Prix, an emotional Norris was filled with pride.
He said: “Apart from a championship, I think this is as good as it gets in terms of feelings and in terms of achievement, being proud, all of it.
“The last few laps, I was just looking into the crowd. I was just trying to take it all in, enjoy the moment, because it might never happen again.
“I hope it does. But these are memories that I’ll bring with me forever.”
Nothing is more special than a home race victory 😮💨👊 @LandoNorris #F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/rm3ohHL60b
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 7, 2025
Oscar Piastri Penalty Explained
Piastri’s penalty came after he slammed the brakes on lap 21 during the safety car restart procedure.
As the cars came down the Hangar Straight, the lights on the safety car went out, indicating a restart on the next lap.
But when Piastri rapidly decelerated, second-placed Max Verstappen had to take avoiding action, swerving to prevent a collision.
The Dutchman briefly passed Piastri, and waved his hands to indicate his displeasure.
The incident was similar to that which took place in Canada, with George Russell also braking while leading the pack at the end of a safety car period.
But the stewards on that occasion did not feel Russell’s braking was severe enough to be outside the bounds of normal driving in order to heat up tyres and brakes.
At Silverstone however, Piastri was judged to have taken things too far.
The on-board telemetry showed a much higher brake pressure applied by the McLaren driver.
This, plus the reduced visibility of the wet track, meant the stewards felt Piastri’s driving was erratic and beyond the sporting regulations.
Stewards Clarify Why Oscar Piastri Was Given A Penalty
after the race, the FIA stewards released a statement regarding Piastri’s penalty.
It read: “When the clerk of the course had declared that the safety car was coming in that lap and the lights were extinguished, Car 81 [Piastri] suddenly braked hard (59.2 psi of brake pressure) and reduced speed in the middle of the straight between T14 and T15, from 218 kph to 52 kph, resulting in Car 1 [Verstappen] having to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
“This momentarily resulted in Car 1 unavoidably overtaking Car 81, a position which he gave back immediately. Article 55.15 of the FIA Sporting Regulations required Car 81 to proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers from the point at which the lights on the safety car are turned off.
“What Car 81 did was clearly a breach of that article. In accordance with the penalty guidelines, we imposed a 10 second time penalty to Car 81.”
Nico Hulkenberg Podium Comes After 239 Races
Among the Silverstone chaos, there was also a long-awaited career first podium for Nico Hulkenberg.
The 37-year-old had the unwanted record for most Grand Prix starts without a podium (238).
But despite starting 19th on the grid, he and his Sauber team played to changing conditions perfectly.
Hulkenberg than held off Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages, with Max Verstappen finishing fifth.
P3 – YEESSSSS!!! 🤩
NICO HULKENBERG SCORES HIS FIRST F1 PODIUM IN HIS 239TH RACE 👏👏👏#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/rKHNIdIfZL
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 6, 2025
Formula One now has three-week break before returning for the second half of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The race weekend at Spa begins on 25 July, and will feature a sprint race for the first time.
