Why was Piastri handed a ten-second penalty for his safety car incident?
Having built up a comfortable margin over his rivals in the early stages of the British Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri was handed a ten-second penalty which eventually saw him lose out to his team-mate Lando Norris.
Following a chaotic start to the British Grand Prix, rain started to fall quite heavily on Lap 12. The increasingly tricky conditions forced the race direction to deploy the Safety Car was deployed which neutralised what had been a significant lead for McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.
As the intensity of rain started to decrease, the safety car peeled into the pits on Lap 21. Although he mastered the tricky conditions brilliantly, Piastri jumped on the brakes down Hangar Straight just as the lights went out on the safety car, signalling a restart for the next lap.
Piastri's sudden braking forced second-placed Max Verstappen to take evasive action and the Dutchman momentarily passed the Australian on the right-hand side of the track. The stewards launched an investigation and ruled his actions as “erratic” and handed him a 10-second time penalty, plus two penalty points on his superlicence.
Explaining the incident and its consequences, the stewards stated: "The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.
"When the clerk of the course had declared that the safety car was coming in that lap and the lights were extinguished, Car 81 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 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."
