How Norris profited from Piastri's British GP loss after contentious penalty

For someone in no real mood to discuss the penalty that had cost him victory at the British Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri nonetheless composed himself before making a few pointed barbs when it came to the stewards' view of his restart approach. And, as much as Lando Norris can be credited for converting the colossal opportunity that plopped into his lap, he'd been trailing his team-mate by a huge margin before the first of two safety cars emerged on course.

Still, Norris luxuriated in the glory of a home win. He'd got into contention when it mattered, played the conditions and, knowing Piastri had time to serve in the pitlane, ensured he'd stuck close to his team-mate as the circuit was drying up to emerge in front. While Piastri remained incensed by the stewards' decision and tried to bring himself back into contention, Norris could not be broken down. The ‘Landostand’ at Stowe corner was, understandably, in raptures.

The moment that produced the swap between McLarens may remain the main course upon the conversation dining table for some time, to be picked at cold like the proverbial Christmas leftovers. The salient facts are these: that Piastri attempted to back the field up for the restart, braked heavily to do so, and was adjudged to have been a move that was "erratic" by the stewards' office. This yielded the 10-second penalty that he'd go on to serve at his crossover stop for slick tyres, a penalty that put him behind Norris with little opportunity for a reprisal as the Briton put the shutters down over the final stage of the race.

What rankled with Piastri was that he was not penalised for the first safety car restart at the end of lap 17. Here, he did effectively the same thing in following the safety car, and then subsequently backing off in an effort to bunch up the field. And, on both occasions, polesitter Max Verstappen (whom Piastri had passed for the lead on the eighth lap) moved to the right hand side - although it did look as though his nose was put out of joint significantly more on the second restart.

"I hit the brakes," Piastri explained ruefully in the post-race press conference. "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."

"After the initial look that we took live during the race, I have to say that the penalty still looks very harsh," added McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, late to his usual post-race media slot as he was poring through the data in preparation. "There's a few factors that we would have liked the stewards to take into account.

Piastri felt hard done by after the FIA stewards slapped him with a 10s penalty

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

"First of all, the safety car was called in very late, not leaving much time for the leader to actually restart, in conditions in which you lose tyre temperature, you lose brake temperature, and the same was for everyone. The 50 bar, it's a pressure that you see during the safety car when you do some braking and acceleration.

"We'd like to see also if other competitors kind of made the situation look worse than what it is, because we know that as part of the racecraft for some competitors, definitely there's also the ability to make others look like they are causing severe infringement when they are not. So, a few things to review. But in itself, now the penalty has been decided, it has been served, and we move on."

Whether the stewards felt that there was a clear difference between Piastri's first restart and the second remains unclear. In any case, even Verstappen was baffled by the call - he thought the 10-second addendum to Piastri's stop was harsh, but also questioned why stewards were only now penalising the sudden slow-down under a safety car after the Canada hubbub with George Russell.

"When you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts, especially when it's not in your control" Oscar Piastri

For Verstappen's part, he'd play no further part in the victory stakes as he slipped off the road on the approach to Club mere seconds later, cold tyres contributing to a quarter-spin without the safety net of downforce thanks to his wing set-up.

"It obviously hurts at the moment," Piastri reflected, visibly sans wind in his sails. "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."

And let's not forget how incisive Piastri was in the opening acts of the race when contending with Verstappen. The four-time world champion flew to pole on Saturday, but there were suspicions that his Red Bull would be severely hamstrung by the predicted onset of rain. And, indeed, Piastri harried him when he could around the stop-start nature of the first part of the race; one virtual safety car emerged to help clear the stricken Liam Lawson, another followed for Gabriel Bortoleto after the Sauber rookie crashed at Turn 2, before some respite from the stoppages.

Once clear of Verstappen, Piastri looked strong favourite for British GP as he pulled away from Norris

Photo by: Andy Hone / LAT Images via Getty Images

Once the field was unchained, Piastri remained cuffed to Verstappen's gearbox; the lower-downforce set-up was starting to hurt Verstappen's traction - and this offered a prime opportunity for the championship leader as DRS was re-enabled. A run into Brooklands didn't offer an immediate return, and nor did a look out of Copse, but the run onto the Hangar Straight presented Piastri with the lead on a silver platter. Verstappen didn't have much to offer into Stowe, and Piastri collected the line and swept past at the end of the eighth lap.

Piastri, now in free air, could easily break away; he put two whole seconds on Verstappen on the following lap as the Dutchman's intermediate tyres were starting to fade on the drying track. Almost inconsequentially, the clutch of drivers who had stopped after the formation lap for slicks were now setting the pace as the Hangar Straight had finally dried up, but their cunning plans were to be derailed by further rain.

Rain had been forecast for some indeterminable point on the Sunday morning, so the continued precipitation through the afternoon - and later, in the race - had come as some surprise. Some of the takers for slicks were preparing for the rain cell entering from stage left with the switch back to inters, and the frontrunners soon followed at the end of the 11th lap for a new set - right on time to deal with the worsening conditions.

In three laps, Piastri had built a significant seven-second lead to ensure McLaren could double stack at the end of that lap. Norris looked to have made his life easier and guaranteed the papaya-coloured cars a 1-2 post-stops, as he cleared Verstappen when the RB21 went off at Becketts, but a slow pit service put the four-time champion back ahead on the road. In the downpour, Verstappen struggled for any kind of impetus, although Norris was just as wayward and struggling to put heat into his tyres as the intensity of the rain developed further.

It got so bad that a lap 14 safety car was called to freeze the order, and to the rain sweep east across Northamptonshire. Following almost four tours behind Bernd Maylander's Mercedes AMG GT, Piastri preserved his lead on the restart and did about half a lap before Maylander returned to the circuit; Isack Hadjar had rear-ended Andrea Kimi Antonelli and subsequently hit the wall at Copse.

This proved to be the turning point, leading to Piastri's restart and his collection of the subsequent 10-second burden. The rain had abated, but the circuit remained wet and the penalty dangled above his head like the Sword of Damocles, waiting to fall in the event that the track dried up as the clouds began to clear. And, this time, Piastri now sat in front of Norris following Verstappen's slip. But Norris didn't fancy banking on the penalty; knowing that he'd likely have to go a lap longer as the double-stack was off the table, the Somerset native started to reel his team-mate in for the first time all afternoon. A 2.5s gap was soon halved, prompting Piastri's side of the pitwall to implore him to keep Norris out of DRS range.

Norris kept clear of Piastri in the closing stages to ease to his fourth win of the season

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As the circuit dried, and the early adopters of slicks started setting race-best sector times, Piastri took the plunge at the end of lap 43 and did his 10 seconds of penalty serving, and Norris' stop a lap later cemented the inevitable. The extra lap with warm slicks ensured that Piastri was only 4.8s off Norris once their stops had been completed, and chasing his team-mate while suffused by the red mist of fury.

"I don't think the penalty before was very fair," Piastri stated over the radio in the aftermath. "I know it's a big question, but if you don't think it was fair either, I think we should swap back and race." After the race, Piastri admitted that this wouldn't have been particularly fair to Norris either - and must be credited for putting aside his upset in the interests of team harmony. But if you don't ask, he contended, you don't get...

After running off course, Piastri's fervent attempts to recapture the lead fizzled out; Norris tacked the requisite time to his lead to ensure he'd soak up the crowd's adulation at home. Piastri's loss was Norris' gain, and the two now remain separated by just eight points at the halfway point of the year. It's game on.

The second half of the season is set to be an all-McLaren battle for the title

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