Lando Norris benefits from Oscar Piastri penalty to claim British GP victory

Irish Times

20 hours ago

Lando Norris took advantage of Oscar Piastri's penalty to win the British Grand Prix, his home race, for the first time in his career.
During a wild, wet and chaotic race at Silverstone, Piastri was dealt a 10-second penalty by the stewards after he slammed on his brakes at 130mph ahead of a safety car restart, forcing
Max Verstappen
to take evasive action.
The penalty cost Piastri the win, with Norris crossing the line 6.8 seconds clear of his McLaren team-mate. Norris' fourth victory of the season saw him reduce the gap to the Australian in the drivers' championship standings from 15 points to eight.
Nico Hulkenberg landed his first podium in Formula One after 239 starts while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth.
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Verstappen spun from second and crossed the line in fifth following a late pass on Lance Stroll. George Russell started fourth but two premature changes to slick tyres destroyed his afternoon. He took the chequered flag in 10th.
Piastri had navigated the early chaos around him – with Liam Lawson and Gabriel Borteleto both crashing out in the slippery conditions – before the McLaren man nailed pole-sitter Verstappen on lap seven to take the lead.
Piastri was flying and was more than a second clear of Verstappen after only a handful of corners. Further joy for McLaren followed on lap 11 when Verstappen ran off the road and Norris was up to second place.
In came the leaders for a fresh set of intermediate tyres, but Norris lost out through a slow front-left tyre and Verstappen was back ahead.
McLaren technical director Peter Prodromou, with Oscar Piastri (second), Lando Norris (first) and Nico Hulkenberg (third). Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
With Verstappen and Norris duelling for second, Piastri was as many as 11 seconds clear when the safety car came out on lap 14 with the rain intensifying.
It pulled in four laps later, but it was required again almost immediately after rookie Isack Hadjar ran into the back of Kimi Antonelli and crashed out at Copse.
Piastri was controlling the field ahead of the restart but slammed on the brakes, forcing Verstappen to dive to his right to avoid the Australian.
Verstappen, holding both hands up in disgust, was straight on the radio. 'Whoa, mate, f***, he just suddenly slows down again.'
When the race restarted, Verstappen spun and fell back to 10th, with Piastri now under investigation. The stewards hit him with a 10-second penalty and with Norris three seconds behind it was now his to lose.
Further back, and Hamilton was on the move. Heading into Sunday's race he had finished on the podium at every British Grand Prix since 2014 and on lap 27 he was up to sixth as he slung shot his Ferrari clear of Russell's Mercedes.
On lap 29, he moved clear of Pierre Gasly for fifth, and then with 17 laps to go he was ahead of Lance Stroll for fourth. Suddenly, a podium looked on with Sauber's Hulkenberg occupying third place.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen (right) congratulates Nico Hulkenberg on his third-place finish. Photograph:Hamilton dived in for slick rubber on lap 42 but he ran off the track on his out lap costing him valuable time. When Hulkenberg stopped, Hamilton was eight seconds behind with as many laps to go but he could not lay a glove on the veteran 37-year-old German.
On lap 43, Piastri switched to dries, and served his punishment to allow Norris to come in on the following lap for his change to slick tyres and take the lead. Norris emerged from the pit lane in the lead and with a six-second advantage.
Piastri called on the McLaren pit wall to swap positions with Norris, and allow a straight fight to the flag. But McLaren rebuffed his desperate plea and an emotional Norris took the win.
In Formula Two, Irish driver
Alex Dunne
recovered from a difficult sprint race to finish second in Sunday's feature race.
An early collision during Saturday's sprint saw the Offaly 19-year-old, racing for Rodin Motorsport, drop back to fourth in the drivers' championship standings. However, his second-place finish on Sunday earned him 18 points to put him back into third.
The 19-year-old may yet see his feature result improve to first as race winner Jak Crawford is under investigation by the stewards over his pit entry before a Virtual Safety Car was called late in the race.
As things stand, Dunne is now 14 points adrift of championship leader Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) on 122, and eight off Crawford (Dams Lucas Oil).