Oscar Piastri explains McLaren team order wish after controversial F1 penalty.

Oscar Piastri asked McLaren to instruct Lando Norris to hand him back the lead of the British Grand Prix after dropping to second place due to a safety car violation.

Piastri led the majority of Sunday’s Formula 1 race at Silverstone after passing polesitter Max Verstappen early on in damp conditions.

However, his chances of victory ended when he was handed a 10-second time penalty for “erratic braking” behind the safety car, leaving him second behind Norris.

It later emerged that the championship leader Piastri had asked McLaren to reinstate him into the lead as he believed his actions didn't warrant a penalty.

No team orders were issued and Piastri eventually took the chequered flag 6.8s behind Norris, who closed the points gap to just eight with his fourth victory of the season.

“I felt like I didn’t deserve the penalty,” he told Sky TV after the race.

“I thought I would at least ask because I felt that I deserved to be in the lead of the race. I’m not saying I deserved to win it.

“I felt that, at that point, I had done everything that I needed to.

“I asked. I wasn’t expecting much. But I thought I’d ask.”

Piastri had built a commanding lead of up to 13 seconds before the first safety car was deployed for worsening weather conditions.

He managed the restart cleanly and remained in control until a second safety car period was triggered to recover Isack Hadjar’s stranded Racing Bulls car.

But just as the safety car lights went out, Piastri appeared to accelerate and slow down at the end of the Hangar Straight, with Verstappen momentarily moving ahead after being caught out by the sudden deceleration.

The stewards found Piastri guilty of breaking the sporting regulations and handed him a 10-second time penalty, which decided the race in favour of teammate Piastri.

Piastri maintained that he feels he did nothing wrong in the incident, but stopped short of criticising the stewards for the sanction.

“I did what I did at the first restart. Apparently one needed a penalty, and one didn’t,” he said.
“I am still surprised. I don’t really understand it. I need to look back and see.

“I really don’t think that I did anything differently, or wrong.

“Anyway, the team did a great job. We had a great car. On my side of the garage, we did everything that we needed to.

“I am very proud of the whole team. We had a rocket ship of a car.

“With all the Safety Cars that got thrown at us, to win by such a margin is impressive.”