McLaren clear: Piastrius' penalty too harsh

The McLaren team has announced that it will further assess the controversial penalty given to its driver Oscar Piastre in the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, from the stewards' perspective and its own, claiming that the penalty was very severe.

Piastre was leading the race at Silverstone on Sunday when he was penalized 10 seconds for "improper driving" in front of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, after he suddenly braked hard after the safety car signaled to pull off the track so the race could continue.

Piastre finished the race in second place, behind teammate Lando Norris.

Piastre and the McLaren team disagreed with the penalty, and director Andrea Stella said the incident needed to be further reviewed.

"I've actually looked at the data and the video again and I can say that the penalty is very severe. There are a few factors that we would like the stewards to take into account. First of all, the safety car was called late, not leaving much time for the lead driver to restart in conditions where the tyre temperature is lost, the brake temperature is lost, and the same goes for everyone else," said Stella, reported Sky.

Also, McLaren wanted to check whether other competitors, in this case Verstappen, made the situation look much worse than it was in that incident.

The stewards' ruling stated that Verstappen was forced to take "evasive action to avoid a collision" when he briefly overtook Piastre because the Australian suddenly braked hard and reduced his speed in the middle of the straight from 218 to 52 kilometers per hour.

"So, a few things to consider, a few things. But the penalty has been decided, it has been served and we move on. We'll see if there's anything to learn from it and I'm sure this will motivate Oskar to be more determined in the upcoming races, to try to win as many races as possible," said Stella.

Piastre is leading the championship with 234 points, ahead of Norris who has 226 and Verstappen with 165 points.

The Formula 1 championship will take a break until July 27th and the Belgian Grand Prix will take place.