McLaren driver Oscar Piastri finished P2 at the British GP with his teammate Lando Norris taking the win. However, it was the Australian who was in the lead of the race and lost out to his teammate following the 10-second penalty given to him by the stewards.
Piastri later requested that McLaren swap positions, as he claimed that the penalty wasn't fair, and fans came out and reacted to it.
Oscar Piastri overtook Max Verstappen in the first few laps of the race and was in the lead when the torrential rain came down and brought out a safety car. As the safety car was called in on Lap 21, Piastri suddenly braked as the safety car lights went out. Verstappen, who was behind the Aussie, couldn't see anything, and had to take avoiding actions to avoid hitting the McLaren driver.
The hard braking was deemed unsafe by the race stewards, who gave Piastri a 10-second time penalty for his action under the safety car. The Australian was leading the race until his final pitstop, where he served the time penalty, which gave his teammate Lando Norris the lead.
However, after his final stop, Piastri came on the radio and claimed that the penalty wasn't fair, asking the team to let him and Norris swap places. The Australian driver's radio call was:
“I don't think the penalty before was very fair. I think we should swap back and race.”
F1 fans came out and reacted to Piastri's request to swap.
“Did Piastri just ask for Norris to give back the race lead??? Lad this is a sport not a charity 😂,” tweeted a fan.
Another wrote, “Piastri crying like a spoilt child. Does anyone believe he would have braked that hard if Norris was behind him?”
“Oscar Piastri asking to swap positions with Lando Norris after a getting a 10 seconds penalty of his own making is one of the funniest and most delusional statements I have ever heard a Formula 1 driver say,” commented another
Another fan came out and suggested that Piastri should be given penalty points on top of the time penalty, as he wrote:
“Penalty shouldn't be enough, he deserves points on his license as well! For reckless driving/breaking”
Some fans came out and pointed out the similarity between Max Verstappen and George Russell's safety car incident at the Canadian GP, where the Mercedes driver braked under the safety car, which forced the Dutchman to overtake momentarily.
“He was trying a George Russell, failed and can’t accept it,” commented a user
Another wrote, “He tried a George Russell but failed.”
“I’ll get myself in trouble”: Oscar Piastri reacts to the 10-second penalty decision
Former F1 driver Jenson Button took the post-race interviews and asked Oscar Piastri about the incident with Max Verstappen under the safety car, which cost him the 10-second penalty. Piastri first hesitated to answer but then took a sly shot at the race stewards, suggesting he was doing the same for the last five laps before the safety car lights went out.
“Yeah I’m not going to say much, I’ll get myself in trouble.”
“Yeah, apparently we can’t brake behind the safety car anymore. I did it for five laps before that. Again, I’m not going to say too much or else I’ll get myself in trouble,” he added.
Lando Norris won the race by nearly a seven-second gap to Oscar Piastri in P2. Had Piastri not had the penalty, he would've won the race. Nico Hulkenberg finished P3 and scored his first ever podium of his F1 career.