Explained: Why Oscar Piastri was given a 10-second penalty and 2 F1 penalty points for the incident with Max Verstappen

Oscar Piastri received a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points for his incident with Max Verstappen during the Safety Car restart on lap 21 of the British Grand Prix. The stewards ruled that Piastri braked erratically, a decision that ultimately cost him the race victory.

Piastri was leading the pack as the safety car was about to come in on lap 21 at the British GP. The race leader braked suddenly, dropping his pace by over 150 km/h on the straight before turn 15. Verstappen had to take avoiding action, and in doing so, went beyond Piastri's McLaren, before returning back to P2.

The Stewards deemed that Piastri had braked erratically, dropping his pace from 218 km/h to 52 km/h. Hence, they gave him a penalty, as he was deemed to be in breach of Article 55.15 of the FIA F1 Sporting Regulations.

Article 55.15 requires drivers to avoid sudden or erratic moves that could put others at risk after the safety car lights are turned off. The Stewards looked at the telemetry data and saw that Piastri dropped his pace significantly, having applied 59.2 psi of brake pressure. All these factors resulted in the Stewards handing the aforementioned penalties to Piastri.

The man from Melbourne was leading the race by over 13 seconds before the safety car came out due to Isack Hadjar's crash. He was also in pole position to continue leading the race at the restart, looking quicker than both Verstappen and Lando Norris who were behind at that time.

But Piastri served his 10-second penalty in the pits towards the end of the race, which meant Norris was able to overcut him with ease.

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Oscar Piastri furious after 10-second penalty at the British GP

Oscar Piastri during the British Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Oscar Piastri's 10-second penaty for a safety car infringement cost him the race win at the Britsh GP. The McLaren driver was fuming after the race and chose not to speak openly about his feelings about the incident with Max Verstappen.

Speaking during the post-race interview, Piastri chose not to "say much", before taking a dig at the stewards' decision of handing him the 10-second penalty.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna say much, I'll get myself in trouble," said Piastri.

"Yeah I mean, apparently you can't brake behind the safety car anymore. I mean, I did it five laps before that. Again, I'll not say too much, I'll get myself in trouble" he added.

Piastri hinted that he felt Verstappen made the incident look much worse over the team radio and also while speaking to Nico Hulkenberg in the cooldown room.

He missed out on a sixth race win this season and an opportunity to pull further ahead in the Drivers' championship. Lando Norris is now just eight points behind Piastri after his win at Silverstone with half the season still to come.