Lando Norris believes his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri deserved a podium in the British Grand Prix.

The Australian started a career-best third, crossing the line fourth at the end of 52 laps of racing.

However, his fate was sealed with the Safety Car emerged, dropping him to fourth behind Lewis Hamilton.

Kevin Magnussen’s Haas expired on Wellington Straight on Lap 32.

The Virtual Safety Car was initially employed before Race Control thrust the Safety Car into action.

It came in the middle of the pit sequence, Piastri having stopped to swap his medium tyres for a set of hards on Lap 29.

Others had remained on track, giving them a cheap stop once the race was neutralised.

One of those was Hamilton, the Mercedes driver therefore able to rejoin the race ahead of Piastri in a net third.

“Honestly, we should have had a P2, P3,” Norris said.

“Oscar did an amazing job all weekend and he should have been P3 today without the Safety Car. He deserved it.”

Piastri starred on the opening lap, mounting a challenge to Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver bogged down at the start.

The pair went side by side into Copse, Verstappen maintaining the upper hand to run second in the early stages.

He soon passed Norris for the lead, the McLaren duo then running a comfortable second and third for much of the race.

That saw the team issue instructions to its pair to hold position as they edged clear of Charles Leclerc in fourth, who had George Russell for company.

For a time, both McLaren drivers remained tucked up behind Verstappen, being pulled along as they extended the advantage over those behind.

Even without the Red Bull’s slipstream, Norris and Piastri could open the gap to Leclerc, the McLaren proving the second-best car on the day.

“They’ve done an amazing job,” Norris said of McLaren’s effort in reversing its fortunes.

“None of this would be possible without the hard work that they’ve been putting in, so pretty amazing, pretty insane.

“They put me on hard tyres, I don’t know why; they’re still beginners in some things,” he joked of his own race.

“It was an amazing fight with Lewis to hold him off. I made a few too many mistakes maybe but I did want to could.

“I brought the fight to Max for as long as possible. It’s a long lonely race when you’re just in the middle but it’s amazing.”

With Hamilton on the soft tyres following the Safety Car intervention, Piastri was unable to mount a challenge in the closing laps.

Instead, he consolidated fourth, seeing off the threat posed by George Russell behind and helping the team walk away from Silverstone with 30 points – more than doubling its tally in a single race.

McLaren now sits fifth in the constructors’ championship with 59 points, while Piastri is 11th in the drivers’ standings with 17 points.