Mercedes enjoyed a strong qualifying session Saturday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, as George Russell finished second and young teammate Kimi Antonelli finished fourth.
But neither driver will be starting there.
Both Russell and Antonelli were assessed one-place grid penalties for their failure to follow the race director’s instructions, as a result of a decision made by the team during Q2.
Esteban Ocon crashed early in the second segment of qualifying, a hard shunt into the wall at Turn 10 that brought out the red flag. Before the session officially resumed, both Russell and Antonelli came out of their garages and lined up in the fast lane of pit row, waiting on the green flag.
However, that violated posted notes from the race director earlier in the week.
While qualifying continued and both Mercedes drivers advanced into Q3, finishing in the top four, both Russell and Antonelli were summoned to meet with race stewards following the session. During the hearing, where they were joined by Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin, Shovlin admitted that he instructed the drivers to exit their respective garages and line up on the pit lane. Shovlin also conceded that he gave that instruction after misreading the message on the timing screen. As noted in the race officials’ decision:
“Mr. Shovlin, in evidence stated that he gave the instruction for the cars to be released, in error, having misinterpreted the message posted on page 3 of the Timing Screen, “estimated re-start time” to be a message advising the actual re-start time.”
While Shovlin conceded the mistake, he argued that the decision by Mercedes to have both drivers line up on the pit lane in error did not give them a sporting advantage, as the rest of the teams could complete their run plans as scheduled. The race officials also heard from Tim Malyon, the FIA’s Single Seater Sporting Director, who stated that “such a move could be a sporting advantage in that it could enable a team to perform its run plan whereas other teams may not be able to.”
Race officials agreed with that assertion, given that only 11 minutes were left in Q2 when Ocon’s crash occurred.
Shovlin then argued for leniency and race officials found merit in this argument, noting that the “breach was unintentional and a genuine mistake by the team for which Mr. Shovlin apologized.”
As such, a one-place grid penalty was handed down to both drivers. Russell will now start third, with Antonelli fifth.
You can read the full decision for both drivers at Documents 33 and 34, here.
Still a strong result for Mercedes, despite that mistake in the pits.
