"The FIA are ruining my sport": Fans react to George Russell and Kimi Antonelli getting penalised for the F1 Bahrain GP

FIA had hit Mercedes' George Russell and Kimi Antonelli with a 1-place grid drop for the Bahrain Grand Prix as the Silver Arrows ventured into the pit lane before an official session resumption time was provided. However, this mistake seemed minute to many as some fans shared their opinions on X (formerly Twitter) about how the FIA was ruining their sport.

The qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix was relatively calm as the Q1 session got over. However, all mayhem broke loose during Q2 as Esteban Ocon suffered a major crash during his first run.

With the red flag out on track, teams waited patiently to get a time on the board, and FIA revealed an estimated resumption time of the session. This was misunderstood by Mercedes' Andrew Shovlin, who allegedly misread it as the actual restart time.

He then ordered both the Silver Arrows to be released out of the garages when the Medical Car was in the pitlane. This mistake did not sit well with the FIA, who gave George Russell and Kimi Antonelli a 1-place grid drop each.

However, fans were not appreciative of the penalties as they reckoned that the sport had stringent rulings, as one fan wrote:

"The fia are ruining my sport."

"FIA are a joke," one fan wrote.

"I’m sorry but surely that’s a team fault and not the drivers? They just follow what the team tells them, a grid penalty seems a bit odd," another fan wrote.

"That's a joke from them today. Late penalties and whatnot else...," another fan shared their frustration against the FIA.

"Surprised it's not a fine but rules are rules," a fan was shocked about how the drivers were given the penalty, instead of the team.

"Why do they punish the drivers for team mistakes," another fan asked a similar question.

Russell will start the Bahrain Grand Prix in P3, while Antonelli will start the 57-lap race in P5.

---

Kimi Antonelli shared his thoughts after a decent qualifying effort

Kimi Antonelli at the post-qualifying interview for the Bahrain Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Kimi Antonelli's best-ever qualifying position was demoted by a single place for the Bahrain Grand Prix. With George Russell outqualifying the young teenager by over two-tenths of a second, the Italian driver admitted that he made several mistakes during his final run in Q3.

Opening up about his qualifying efforts for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli said (via Mercedes):

"I made a few mistakes here and there across the session, but overall, it’s still my highest grid position of the season despite the post-session penalty and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. My confidence is continuing to build but I’m still learning. This is another good step forward for me."

On the other hand, Russell's one-place grid drop helped Charles Leclerc get promoted to a front-row start. Similarly, Alpine's Pierre Gasly enjoyed the post-session penalties as he was escalated up to P4 on the starting grid.