Max Verstappen shocked by 'extreme' Oscar Piastri penalty

Max Verstappen was left shocked when he discovered the size of Oscar Piastri's penalty in the British Grand Prix, describing it as "very extreme". 

The championship leader had been leading at Silverstone ahead of Verstappen and Lando Norris in torrential conditions early on, dealing with multiple virtual safety cars and actual safety car periods. 

He dealt with each restart perfectly, until the final safety car restart on lap 21. The Australian was handed a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points for 'erratic braking'. 

As Piastri entered the Hangar straight behind the safety car, the McLaren driver sped up, before slamming on the brakes when the lights on top of the safety car went out. 

The stewards judged that Piastri had braked too harshly, forcing Verstappen to go past in avoiding action. Following a reflection of data, it was deemed that Piastri's speed reduced from 218 km/h to just 52. 

When Piastri served the penalty ahead of his only pit stop, he lost the lead of the grand prix to Lando Norris – the Briton went on to win his home race. 

Verstappen actually spun at the safety car restart which saw Piastri penalised, but managed to recover to fifth.

The reigning world champion had a similar incident with George Russell in Montreal; however, could not understand Piastri's significant penalty.

"It's happened to me a few times now, of course, that people do that to me," Verstappen told Viaplay. 

"Only I only heard after the race that he got 10 seconds for that. Of course, that's very extreme again, a 10-second penalty. But yes, I don't make the rules."