Max Verstappen surprised by “strange” Oscar Piastri penalty: “It’s happened to me a few times”

Max Verstappen was surprised that Oscar Piastri was penalised for their incident under the Safety Car at the F1 British Grand Prix.

Piastri was handed a 10-second time penalty for braking aggressively under Safety Car conditions.

The Australian’s penalty ultimately cost him the British GP victory, giving it to teammate and F1 title rival, Lando Norris.

Piastri felt the penalty was unfair, given he did the same thing under the previous Safety Car restarts.

A similar incident occurred between Verstappen and George Russell at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Russell braked suddenly under the Safety Car, forcing Verstappen to take the lead momentarily.

Russell wasn’t penalised for his actions, even though Red Bull protested the race against the Mercedes driver.

Speaking after the race at Silverstone, Verstappen revealed he was caught out by Piastri suddenly braking under the Safety Car.

“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.”

A tough race for Verstappen

Despite taking pole on Saturday, race day would always be an uphill battle for the four-time world champion.

Red Bull opted to run Verstappen’s car with a skinny rear wing and thus with less downforce.

As a result, Verstappen struggled for pace and tyre wear.

Verstappen lost control of his car shortly after the incident with Piastri, dropping him down to 11th.

The Dutchman recovered to finish fifth, overtaking Lance Stroll late on.

“I didn’t know what to expect. There was a difficult balance in the car between high and low speed,” Verstappen said of the car’s balance.

“Also, in the entries, we were degrading the tyres too much. Then I had my ‘moment’ which made everything more difficult.

“I didn’t have the pace to move forwards which was concerning. We made the right calls, we stayed out as long as we could. We ended up fifth which, with hindsight, was the best we could have done after the things which happened in the race.

“The rear wing, for sure, made everything more complicated. But even if we had more downforce, we wouldn’t be fighting with McLaren. That’s for sure.”