Piastri explains his incident behind the safety car
On the back of a disappointing end to his British Grand Prix, championship leader Oscar Piastri explained what happened behind the safety car which saw him earn a ten-second time penalty.
McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris started from P2 and P3 on the grid at Sunday's British Grand Prix. Starting in the wet, the Australian managed to extract more grip from his inters than race-leader Verstappen could and picked off the Dutchman for the lead.
The Melbourne-born driver managed to build up an enormous lead of over 13 seconds over Verstappen and Norris. However, a safety car period meant that the championship leader lost his comfortable lead.
At the second Safety Car restart, Piastri braked heavily, and Verstappen shot past him. The stewards rules that the Australian had not followed procedure and handed him a 10-second time penalty. Just moments after this incident, Verstappen had spun at the exit of Stowe and dropped back.
It left Piastri and Norris at the front of the field, and they managed to build a huge advantage over the field. When the papaya cars pitted for slick tyres, Norris emerged ahead after Piastri served his penalty. That left the Brit to enjoy the last few laps before crossing the line to win his home race for the first time.
Pressed on to explain what happened on the rundown to Stowe behind the Safety Car, Piastri said: "I hit the brakes. At the same time I did that, the lights on the Safety Car went out, which was also extremely late.
"And then obviously, I didn't accelerate because I can control the pace from there. And, yeah, you saw the result. I didn't do anything differently to my first restart. I didn't go any slower. I didn't do anything differently. So, a shame.
Pushed on whether he wants to seek clarification about the penalty, the Melbourne-born driver stated:"I don't know. I don't think it's worth doing at the moment. I'm not sure it's going to be very constructive in all honesty. I don't know. But I don't really care at the moment."
"It obviously hurts at the moment. It's a different hurt though because I know I deserved a lot more than what I got today. I felt like I drove a really strong race. Ultimately, when you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts, especially when it's not in your control."
Signing off with a word for his race pace at Silverstone, Piastri said: "I think it was a really, really good day. A similar race to here 12 months ago and a very different outcome for the whole team.
"The whole team did a really good job. The car was obviously mega, and giving myself credit, I feel like I did a good job today. So, it just makes it more painful when you don't win."
