George Russell has been handed a three-place grid drop for this afternoon’s US Grand Prix Sprint event after the Mercedes was found guilty of impeding Charles Leclerc in Saturday’s sprint shootout.
Russell qualified P8 in the shootout session, having no soft tyres at his disposal for his only flyer.
Adding to the Britons woes was an incident in SQ1 when Russell was found running at a leisurely pace on the racing line on the exit of Turn 19 with Leclerc’s Ferrari fast approaching.
It was clear-cut case of blocking as far as the stewards were concerned.
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“Car 63 [Russell] entered the last two corners preparing for his flying lap at the end of SQ1 with Car 16 [Leclerc] closing in quickly,” noted their report.
“Whilst the team did inform the driver about the closing car a few seconds in advance, there was no further information directly before Car 63 entered Turn 19 with Car 16 right behind. Car 63 did not move from the racing line in or after Turn 19 and therefore unnecessarily impeded Car 16.
“The Stewards note that irrespective of any information coming from the team, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that no other cars are unnecessarily impeded.”
Speaking after the session, Russell alluded to a radio communication issue with his Mercedes team.
“It was definitely a scrappy session,” he admitted. “We had a problem with the radio, so all of the engineers were talking in the background, and I was hearing it on my fast laps, and it sounded like they were talking to me so that was pretty distracting.”
Russell will launch his sprint from P11 on the grid, with Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo all gaining a spot in the process.
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