Oscar Piastri has avoided a penalty after a “scary” pit lane incident with George Russell during Friday’s second practice session at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
The Australian driver caused a tense moment during FP2 when he reentered the fast lane while coming into the pits. His actions forced Russell to brake heavily and take evasive action.
Piastri had initially been pulling up alongside the first McLaren pit crew before engineers waved him toward the second crew. In doing so, he briefly turned back into the fast lane, creating a potentially dangerous situation.
Russell reacted immediately over the radio, explaining the incident to his team: “Piastri just turning into his box, and I was passing on the left, and then he just turned into me. As you can probably tell by the tone of my voice, I was not expecting that… He was going long into his box.”
The FIA stewards investigated and found both Piastri and McLaren at fault. An official document read: “Car 81 attempted to leave the fast lane and enter its pit box during a Red Flag period in Free Practice 2. As Car 81 approached the pit box, the entry was blocked by team personnel pushing a rear jack.
“Another team member signalled Car 81 to go around him to the next pit area, which he did. In doing so, he turned back briefly within the fast lane and thereafter entered the pit box.
“All of this resulted in Car 63 having to brake heavily and take evasive action. No collision was caused, however, the situation could have resulted in one. It could also have resulted in injury to one or more team personnel in the pit lane.”
McLaren penalised after Piastri pit lane scare with Russell
The stewards noted that McLaren acknowledged Piastri had not been warned but admitted the team could have managed the pit entry more carefully: “We agreed that the team should have taken more care in managing the entry of Car 81 into the pit box.”
Ultimately, the stewards fined McLaren €5,000 under Article 12.2.1.h of the International Sporting Code, highlighting the seriousness of the incident while noting that no collision or injuries occurred.
After the session, with more time to reflect on the incident, Russell told Sky Sports F1: “I think he pulled in too early then pulled back out. A bit unfortunate.
“It scared me a bit. When you’re on track, you’re ready for anything. But when you’re in the pit lane going relatively slow, you’re chilling out then suddenly ‘geez!’. It caught me out by surprise.”
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