Martin Brundle corrected by F1 icon as furious Oscar Piastri causes tension

Martin Brundle has been corrected as he gave his view on the race-defining penalty handed to Oscar Piastri at the British Grand Prix. The McLaren man was leading the race, behind a Safety Car, when his actions led to a 10-second penalty, eventually pushing him back to a second-placed finish behind winner Lando Norris.

Piastri later said that he would be banned if he spoke about the incident, having been accused of suddenly slowing. He had just taken control of the pack, as it was confirmed that the Safety Car was coming in at the end of lap 21.

Max Verstappen, who pulled ahead of Piastri as he struggled to slow sufficiently to stay behind the leader, eventually spun as he tried to keep up with the then-accelerating Kiwi. The Dutchman later branded Piastri's punishment as "strange."

Brundle, however, could understand why the penalty was given and Red Bull would need mitigating circumstances to avoid it. Even though a similar incident involving George Russell was overlooked in Canada.

"They need mitigating circumstances to drop that [penalty] to five seconds, or indeed no penalty at all," Brundle said on Sky Sports F1.

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"He was almost stationary, wasn't he? I hear what Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] is saying, Max did floor it down the outside to emphasise, but that was extremely slow from Oscar.

"Yeah, it looked [like he was at a standstill] from our camera angle, but they'll have that to the nth degree in the data."

But meanwhile on Channel 4's coverage, pundit David Coulthard felt that the punishment was harsh and he offered a different view.

"When you're behind the safety car with the lights off, you have to stay within 10 car lengths of that safety car, keeping the field going with you," the former McLaren and Red Bull driver explained.

"Once the safety car lights go out, you then control the pace for the restart. You want to allow the safety car to get off into the pit lane. And it's the fact that he's accelerated, then decelerated, that's caught Max out, and then the stewards have either, I assume, used the information that's available.

"Max has got space, it's not like he's on the grass, but that was enough for them to go, that's erratic behaviour behind the safety car, and that's why they've given the 10-second penalty. Do I think the penalty fits the crime? No. If that's consistent with things they've done in the past, then that should be a smaller penalty.

"He hasn't forced anyone off the road, seeing it from Max's point of view, he hasn't had to lock up, he hasn't had to take massive avoiding action, I'm forever going to think that's harsh until someone convinces me otherwise."