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Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have both expressed concern the FIA stewards have set a precedent with their penalty handed out to George Russell during the United States sprint event.
Mercedes driver Russell was given a five-second sanction for overtaking Piastri off-track at Turn 15 on lap three of the 19-lap race at the Circuit of the Americas that was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Russell then powered away, and by the time the stewards delivered their verdict, despite the seemingly clear-cut nature of the incident, the Briton was comfortably ahead of Piastri.
The penalty was added to his elapsed race time, relegating him from seventh to eighth position.
“I’ve seen the replay and he clearly just accelerates off the track and goes past,” said Piastri. “I don’t think you could even get close to arguing that was a 50-50.
“The five seconds made a bit of a difference to his race but not much, but that’s the kind of thing you can do when you’re in a faster car in a situation like that. I don’t think it’s great for everyone.
“The stewards gave him a penalty for it, which raises the question, in that racing situation, of whether the penalty was right, or whether it sets a precedent for the future.”
Suggested to Piastri, who finished 10th due to high tyre degradation in the early laps that resulted in him dropping back through the field after starting from fifth, that Russell’s move was pre-mediated, he initially shied away.
“I don’t know if I would go that far,” he replied, before adding: “I feel like in that situation, to me that was quite blatant.
“Swapping the cars back around shouldn’t be that difficult in that set of circumstances.
“If it’s only going to be five seconds for that, especially in a longer race, then it is going to be beneficial.
“Maybe some people will have it (such a move) pre-meditated, but it definitely sets a bit of a precedent for the kind of penalty you’re going to get for doing that.
“And if you’re in a quicker car, whoever you’re trying to overtake, it does give you an incentive.”
Piastri was fervently supported by Norris, particularly as the issue has previously been raised in drivers’ briefings in the past – even by Russell – with the stewards determining the fair penalty would be for the position to be handed back.
“It’s something you can easily prepare yourself for, and I’m pretty sure we came up with the conclusion that people are going do it on purpose,” said Norris. “We discussed it, this exact thing, and we discussed that you can easily do it.
“If you’re quicker, you can pass someone, and you’re easily going to pull away five seconds, so they said, ‘Okay, we’ll do it so you have to give back the position, but now they’ve set a precedent of not even having to do that.
“I don’t know if they asked George to do it or not, and he didn’t want to do it, but they’ve set a precedent of being able to easily do that.”
Referencing his potential battle at the start of the grand prix with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc from the front row, he said: “So if I do it with the Ferrari, I just commit to doing it, it’s five seconds, I pull away five seconds.
“So it’s a lack of consistency again, which I’m a bit surprised by.
“I thought there was quite a clear guideline of what they were going to do when such a thing happened, but clearly not.”
