McLaren fined after Piastri-Russell mishap in pitlane at F1 Dutch GP

Oscar Piastri will not take a penalty after a pitlane contretemps with George Russell almost resulted in contact in Formula 1’s second Dutch Grand Prix practice session at Zandvoort.

During the second red flag of the Friday session, produced as Alex Albon beached his Williams at Turn 1, the field sauntered into the pits – and Piastri attempted to take the usual route out of the fast lane into his pitbox.

The Australian was waved past and thus went back into the fast lane to resume his earlier course for a couple of metres, with the intent to park up outside of his own garage.

However, this change of direction almost caused contact with Russell, who had to check up and take evasive action. The Mercedes driver admitted the incident caught him by surprise.

“I think he pulled in a bit too early, pulled back out, so just a bit unfortunate, but it scared me a bit,” Russell 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.”

The stewards noted that this “could have resulted in injury to one or more personnel in the pitlane”, and it decreed that a €5000 penalty for McLaren was sufficient, having been deemed not to have given its driver enough warning.

The stewards’ report read as follows:

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 81 (Oscar Piastri), team representative and reviewed video, team radio and in-car video evidence.

“Car 81 attempted to leave the fast lane and enter its pit box during a red flag period in free practice 2. As Car 81 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. All of this resulted in Car 63 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.

“Although we issued the Summons based on Article 55.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, we felt that Article 12.2.1.h better reflected the infringement by the team in this instance.

“We therefore imposed a fine of €5,000 under that Article.”

Article 55.5 relates to driving erratically or unsafely under the safety car, but referred to the International Sporting Code regulation on “any unsafe act or failure to take reasonable measures, thus resulting in an unsafe situation”.