Lando Norris became the 13th home winner of the British Grand Prix by defeating McLaren teammate and championship rival Oscar Piastri in a 2025 race dominated by the Woking-based outfit.
Nico Hulkenberg broke his podium duck for Sauber after an extraordinary wet-dry-wet-dry race at Silverstone, finishing 34 seconds down on Norris, with Piastri six seconds adrift of his team-mate.
But the race hinged on a penalty for long-time leader Piastri. The Australian had been in control having passed polesitter Max Verstappen early in the race, the Red Bull driver struggling for grip in the slippery conditions.
What did Piastri do?
Having assumed the lead on lap eight, Piastri stretched his advantage at the front to some 13 seconds before a safety car was deployed on lap 14 after a deluge created treacherous track conditions. Four laps later, green flag racing resumed momentarily before a nasty crash for Isack Hadjar, who was unsighted in the spray and hit Kimi Antonelli at Copse.
At the end of the resultant safety car period, Piastri slowed on the Hanger Straight as he became the de facto pace controller, with Verstappen overtaking him, caught out by the sudden stop. The rest of the pack concertinaed up behind in the spray, creating what seemed was at best an awkward, at worst a dangerous situation.
This prompted an investigation, for which a 10-second penalty was handed to Piastri and subsequently gifting Norris victory.
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“I hit the brakes,” Piastri explained. “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. So, a shame.”
What the F1 stewards said
“When the clerk of the course had declared that the safety car was coming in that lap and the lights were extinguished, Car 81 suddenly braked hard (59.2 psi of brake pressure) and reduced speed in the middle of the straight between T14 and T15, from
218 kph to 52 kph, resulting in Car 1 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
“This momentarily resulted in Car 1 unavoidably overtaking Car 81, a position which he gave back immediately. Article 55.15 of the FIA Sporting Regulations required Car 81 to proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers from the point at which the lights on the safety car are turned off.
“What Car 81 did was clearly a breach of that article. In accordance with the penalty guidelines, we imposed a 10-second time penalty to Car 81.”
Was Piastri’s British Grand Prix penalty deserved?
The situation was similar to the one that saw Red Bull protest the result of the Canadian Grand Prix after George Russell broke heavily behind the safety car and saw Verstappen overtake the Mercedes.
That protest was thrown out as data showed that only 30 psi of brake pressure was applied when slowing, which is considered a normal rate. Piastri’s was double that pressure, which is why there is disparity here.
But when pointed to the reference to Verstappen‘s evasive action in the stewards’ report, the championship leader replied: “I don’t think he had to evade me. I think he managed the first time.
“Going back to Canada, I think you had to evade more there than you did today. So, yeah, I’m a bit confused to say the least.”
The issue for Piastri with that argument is the fact that the entire field was spread out across the width of the Hangar Straight in order to avoid contact with rivals, a situation not too dissimilar to the huge accident at Mugello at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix. That is something nobody in the sport wants a repeat of.
Was the penalty deserved? Yes. Was it unlucky? Absolutely. The timing of the lights going out on the safety car was later than is the norm and no doubt contributed to what happened.
But almost 170kph of speed was scrubbed in a short space of time, bunching the field up at a time when visibility was poor and had only just contributed to a nasty incident for Hadjar. A turning point in the championship it may be, but one that Piastri can learn from.
