Max Verstappen admitted Oscar Piastri’s penalty at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix was “strange” after navigating a similar incident with George Russell in Canada.
Piastri was on course to win his sixth race of 2025 at Silverstone before a Safety Car infringement earned the Australian a 10-second time penalty from the stewards.
The McLaren driver was comfortably in the lead during a wet-dry thriller at the Northamptonshire-based circuit as the second Safety Car period was coming to an end.
As the Safety Car lights went out on the Hangar Straight, Piastri seemingly came to a standstill, leading to Verstappen, in second, jumping past him.
The stewards noted the 24-year-old for driving erratically behind the Safety Car and gave him the penalty, costing him a potential victory to team-mate Lando Norris.
“I only found out after the race that he got one. No one told me during the race,” Verstappen told media including Motorsport Week.
This meant that after the final round of pit stops, Piastri fed back into the race behind Norris, who eventually went on to win his first home Grand Prix at the chequered flag.
But when asked if he felt that Piastri deserved the reprimand, the four-time World Champion jumped to his rival’s defence instead.
“You know, the thing is that it happened to me now two times, this kind of scenario. I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10 seconds for it,” he said.
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen was involved in a similar incident with Russell. However, the stewards did not deem the Briton to violate the regulations on that occasion.
“I think, well, clearly to the stewards, yes,” explained Verstappen when asked if Piastri’s actions were too dissimilar to Russell’s manoeuvre.
Verstappen doesn’t blame Piastri for ruined race
Right after the Safety Car restart, the Dutchman tried applying pressure on the Australian into Stowe. However, at the exit, he lost control of his RB21 and spun.
Verstappen slipped down the pack to 10th place, but he recovered to fifth at the end of the 52-lap race.
Piastri was found to have applied 60 psi of pressure on his brake pedal – double of what Russell had done in Montreal.
And while it is being suggested that this meant Verstappen lost critical tyre temperature at the restart, he doesn’t blame the Australian for his spin.
“I don’t think so,” said Verstappen when asked if his moment with Piastri on the Hangar Straight had any impact on his subsequent moment out of Stowe.
“I mean, I just tried to go on throttle, but the car has been really difficult already, up until that point, with just trying to find a nice rhythm. And it just caught me out on cold tyres.”
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