The incident occurred during the second safety car restart on lap 21 of the grand prix, when Piastri hit the brakes as the safety car lights went out (meaning the safety car would return to the pits) causing Max Verstappen (the car behind Piastri) to have to take evasive action.

According to the FIA document detailing the penalty, the stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence in order to arrive at their decision on the incident. The document describes Piastri’s braking as “erratic”, and uses the evidence that Piastri’s speed reduced from 218kph to just 52kph to support their decision. The document also reveals that Piastri braked using 59.2 psi of pressure – in comparison, George Russell’s braking pressure during a similar incident in Canada this year was just 30 psi.

The final decision was that Piastri had breached Article 55.15 of F1’s sporting regulations and Article 2.10.15 of Appendix H in the International Sporting code. Article 55.15 required Piastri to ‘proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers from the point at which the lights on the safety car are turned off’. In not doing so in the stewards’ eyes, Piastri was given a 10-second penalty and 2 penalty points on his super license (bringing him to a total of 6 for the 12 month period).

With the recent release of the FIA’s penalty guidelines we can also ascertain context as to the scale of Piastri’s penalty versus what the stewards have at their disposal for that exact infringement.

A breach of article 55.5 can result in a 5s penalty, 10s penalty, or a drive-through or 10s stop and go with the stewards able to award a maximum of 2 penalty points for 5/10s penalties and 3 for a drive-through or stop and go.

It means that while Piastri was understandably disappointed following the penalty, especially given that prior to the safety car he had a 15-second lead in the race, the penalty could have been more severe.

“Apparently you can’t brake behind the safety car anymore… I mean, I did it for five laps before that. I’m not going to say too much because I’ll get myself in trouble,” Piastri said in a post-race interview.

Even Verstappen felt that Piastri’s penalty was “extreme”: “It’s happened to me a few times now, of course, that people do that to me… I only heard after the race that he got 10 seconds for that. Of course, that’s very extreme again, a 10-second penalty. But yes, I don’t make the rules,” the four-time world champion said.