After a controversial British GP penalty, Oscar Piastri is “burning with determination” — and McLaren warns Lando Norris: “Your biggest challenge may now come from within.”
Lando Norris won the British Grand Prix to fulfil a childhood dream in front of 168,000 fans at Silverstone on Sunday, but he has been warned that the McLaren team-mate he beat, Oscar Piastri, will be incensed enough by his ‘harsh’ punishment to fire back in their two-horse race for the world championship.
The win moved Norris within eight points of his Australian rival. It’s 12 races down with 12 to go, and the pair seem in a class of their own after defending and quadruple champion Max Verstappen finished fifth at the rain-splashed race.
Norris triumphed when Piastri was handed a 10-second penalty for ‘erratic braking’ under the safety car, a punishment Norris capitalised on to take victory, his first at his home grand prix.
Piastri, the runner-up, felt he had been unfairly penalised, his comments jeopardising what had been a strangely harmonious arrangement between the pair. And their McLaren boss Andrea Stella, the supreme peace-negotiator, said: ‘I have to say that the penalty was very harsh.
‘There are a few things to review, but now the penalty has been decided, and has been served. We move on.
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Lando Norris (R) has been warned that Oscar Piastri will be extra motivated after Sunday’s race
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The win moved Norris (R) within eight points of his Australian rival in the standings
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Their McLaren boss Andrea Stella agreed that the penalty was very harsh on Piastri
‘I’m sure Oscar will use this motivation to be even more determined for the races to come and try to win as many races as possible.’
Wind is gathering behind Norris three weeks after he crashed into Piastri in Canada, his championship hopes seemingly dashed, with wins in Austria and Britain, his first consecutive victories in a single season. Red Bull’s Verstappen is 69 points adrift.
Norris cut his nose in celebrations afterwards, elbowed accidentally by a photographer in the melee. He said: ‘It’s two wins in a row, but they’ve not come easy by any means.’
