Mercedes' Russell and Antonelli get penalty for Bahrain pit incident

Russell and Antonelli headed into the pitlane under a red flag before race control had announced a restart time at Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli have received a one-place grid drop each for a Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying infraction.

Russell loses his front-row spot to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, while Alpine driver Pierre Gasly is promoted to fourth on the grid at Antonelli's expense.

After Q2 was red-flagged for a crash for Haas driver Esteban Ocon, both Mercedes drivers were sent out into the pitlane before race control had announced a restart time, which is not allowed by the sporting regulations. As such both Mercedes drivers receive a one-place grid drop for Sunday's grand prix.

In their verdict the FIA race stewards explained that Mercedes' head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin owned up for a mistake interpreting the timing screen's messages from race control.

"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," the verdict read.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

"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. It was also noted that the team’s Sporting Director, [Ron] Meadows, was not present at the event and that normally he would be involved in the release process.

"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."

Russell and Antonelli received a grid drop rather than a fine to set a precedent and discourage teams from releasing cars into the pitlane early in the future. "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," the statement added.

Because the stewards accepted Mercedes made an "unintentional and genuine mistake" the sporting penalty is just a single grid place drop, with the stewards cautioning that repeats could lead to more severe penalties.