George Russell and Kimi Antonelli demoted after FIA slams Mercedes duo with a penalty at the Bahrain GP

The FIA stewards have slammed the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli with a one-place grid penalty for red flag infringement during Bahrain GP qualifying. In what appears to be an operational error from the team, the duo was released by the team for the pit lane exit before the stipulated time during the red flag period.

As part of the regulations, teams have to make sure that the cars are not released before the restart time, as it could give the respective drivers an advantage. In the press release shared by the FIA, it is stated that Mercedes tried to argue that the team misinterpreted the message and argued that there was no sporting advantage gained. The release read:

"The team representative, 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. He argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining (11 minutes) for other teams to perform their run plans."

The FIA sporting director did not agree that there was no sporting advantage gained by both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli with that move. As a result, a one-place grid penalty was issued to both drivers. The statement read:

"The FIA Single Seater Sporting Director 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. The Stewards agree with this view particularly where there are only a few minutes remaining in the session."

"The FIA Sporting Director argued that there needed to be a sporting penalty rather than a team fine, otherwise in future teams would release their cars as soon as the estimated re-start time was published. The Stewards agree with this view."

As a result of the penalty, George Russell will now drop one place to P3, promoting Charles Leclerc to P2, while Kimi Antonelli drops one place to P5, promoting Pierre Gasly to P4.

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George Russell's reaction on slotting his Mercedes on the front row

George Russell was quite ecstatic about getting his Mercedes on the front row (this was before the penalty was announced). The driver had continued to string together strong laps and get quicker as the conditions cooled down. It was only on the last lap where he just took things to the next level and completely nailed it.

It took a perfect last lap from Oscar Piastri as well to overhaul the effort from the Mercedes driver. In an honest admission, Russell conceded that he didn't expect to be this close to McLaren. He said:

"I think if anybody said we'd have been within half a second of the McLarens we'd have taken it because we would have thought that would have been P3 on the grid. So to be second on the grid is a bonus. Congrats to Oscar, great lap, and excited for tomorrow now."

Fortunately for both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, neither of the two has been handed penalty points for the incidents, something that tends to be the added blow in such cases.