Oscar Piastri “angry side” emerges, “fireworks” predicted against Lando Norris

The battle for the F1 championship between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris has been tipped to heat up by Martin Brundle.

Norris won his home race, the British Grand Prix, at the weekend after a crucial time penalty was handed to his McLaren teammate Piastri.

Piastri lost 10 seconds while he was leading the race and ultimately lost out by 6.8 seconds to Norris.

Importantly, it means his lead in the F1 drivers’ championship has been cut to eight points.

Piastri made his annoyance clear after the British Grand Prix.

“That's the first time we've seen the angry side of the calm silent Aussie assassin,” Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column.

“Oscar's radio call for the places to be swapped if the team thought he'd received an unfair penalty was more than cheeky, though.”

Piastri conceded that he had no expectation for McLaren to grant his ambitious wish to be given his position back, in front of Norris.

Piastri has won five grands prix this season compared to Norris’ four.

The ‘Papaya rules’ - McLaren’s in-house driving guidelines for how their drivers should go racing - could yet play a role in the title battle.

McLaren do not name a No1 driver and instead treat Piastri and Norris equally. But it is so finely poised in the F1 standings that even minor decisions from the pitwall might have a big impact.

“With the Ferrari boys, Max Verstappen and George Russell having a more difficult day, and with the McLaren duo a full two seconds faster per lap than the rest of the field in some phases, as Silverstone marks the halfway point of the season, albeit with four of the six Sprint races remaining, it seems the Drivers' Championship showdown will indeed be between Piastri and Norris, and we can expect some fireworks there,” Brundle wrote.

Martin Brundle’s judgement on Oscar Piastri’s penalty

Brundle agreed that Piastri warranted a penalty at Silverstone.

The McLaren driver was punished for his braking under Safety Car conditions.

With poor visibility, he slowed by approximately 100mph, causing Verstappen to avoid him.

“This is a very important rule as the concertina effect, especially in poor visibility, can cause significant incidents in a ripple effect through the rest of the queue,” Brundle wrote.

That view was bluntly expressed to Piastri by Nico Hulkenberg inside the cooldown room.

Hulkenberg told Piastri: “You caused a bit of… I almost went off. Almost into the back of Lance [Stroll] and Pierre [Gasly].”

Piastri explained himself to Hulkenberg: “The problem was that it was just a coincidence that I hit the brakes as the lights turned off.”

Ten seconds is the standard penalty. Stewards opted not to reduce it to five seconds, which they can do if they spot mitigating circumstances.