F1 stewards statement as Oscar Piastri penalty decision made at Dutch Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri has avoided a sporting penalty at the Dutch Grand Prix after almost causing a crash in the pit lane. George Russell was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision when following the McLaren into the pits during second practice at Zandvoort on Friday.

It happened just after the session was stopped when Alex Albon buried the nose of his Williams in a tyre barrier and then, in his attempt to get back on track, became stuck in a gravel trap. Everyone else on track returned to their garages with Piastri entering the pit lane just in front of Russell.

McLaren mechanics were out to receive both their cars and Piastri tried to turn in straight away to the first group waiting to service a car. But he was quickly waved on to the second of the two groups, which forced him to briefly re-enter the fast lane.

But he did so right in front of Russell's Mercedes and the Brit was forced to brake hard to avoid a crash. The incident was immediately noted and investigated after the session with Piastri summoned to the stewards along with a representative of his team.

After explaining his side of the story, the Aussie avoided any personal punishment with McLaren accepting blame for what happened and being hit with a £4,200 fine. Their decision was explained in the official FIA decision document.

It read: "As Car 81 [Piastri] approached the pit box, the entry was blocked by team personnel pushing a rear jack. Another team member signalled Car 81 to go around him to the next pit area which he did. In doing so, he turned back briefly within the fast lane and thereafter entered the pit box.

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"All of this resulted in Car 63 [Russell] having to brake heavily and take evasive action. No collision was caused, however, the situation could have resulted in one. It could also have resulted in injury to one or more team personnel in the pit lane.

"The team acknowledged that the driver was not warned and also recognised that they could have managed the situation better. We agreed that the team should have taken more care in managing the entry of Car 81 into the pit box."

Speaking before that verdict was handed out, Russell did not seem to be pushing for a penalty for Piastri. "I think he pulled in a bit too early, pulled back out, so just a bit unfortunate, but it scared me a bit," the Mercedes man said.

"When you're on track you're sort of ready for anything, but when you're in the pitlane going relatively very slow, you're just chilling out. I was looking at my screen, I was like, 'Oh Jesus' – yeah, caught me by surprise."