Oscar Piastri's Formula 1 championship lead shrank at the British Grand Prix on Sunday (local time), with a time penalty costing him victory.
The Australian found himself in the lead at a wet Silverstone when a safety car was called.
Upon the race restart, he slowed down, which saw Max Verstappen, who was sitting behind, take evasive action.
The lead car can dictate the pace of the restart, but Piastri was pinged by race stewards for "suddenly" braking.
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He received a 10-second time penalty, which he served during a pitstop.
As a result, McLaren teammate Lando Norris took the race lead and went on to claim victory in his home Grand Prix.
Piastri managed to finish second, although he saw his championship advantage reduced to eight points.
Watch the incident below:
The incident that led to Piastri’s 10-second penalty 👀#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/19PHX5hXGO
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 6, 2025
Post-race, the FIA stewards detailed the reasoning behind the penalty, revealing a significant amount of brake pressure was used.
"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," the memo said.
"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."
Piastri was asked by his team to keep his thoughts to himself in the immediate aftermath of the race.
"Yep, I think I’ll get myself banned for the year if I say anything here," he replied.
"Thanks for the effort."
The 24-year-old later reacted expressed confusion regarding regarding his penalty.
"I don’t really understand it," Piastri.
"I need to look back and see it again because I don’t think I did anything different or anything wrong.
"I mean, I did what I did at the first restart and, apparently, one needed a penalty and other didn’t."
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At the time of the incident, Verstappen reacted negatively as he swerved to avoid contact.
"Woah, mate," the four-time world champion said.
"He just suddenly again slows down!"
However, post-race, the Dutchman admitted he was surprised by the penalty issued.
"It caught me out on cold tyres," Verstappen explained.
"I only found out after the race [that Piastri was penalised]. It has happened to me a few times, this kind of scenario.
"I find it strange that Oscar is the first to receive 10 seconds for it."