George Russell was critical of the stewards’ decision to give him a drive-through penalty, which cost him valuable points at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.
The British driver, starting in sixth with Mercedes teammate and title rival Kimi Antonelli on pole, gained a place at the start and eventually passed Isack Hadjar with his first pit-stop.
However, alongside a host of other drivers, Russell was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit-lane. Yet when he next pitted amid the late safety car chaos, Russell’s Mercedes team forgot to serve their penalty.
As a result, when the race was red-flagged, Russell was handed a drive-through penalty which he had to serve when the grand prix restarted. The Brit progressed up to third at the start but dropped to 14th after serving his penalty. While he finished 13th, Antonelli won his fifth race in a row and extended his championship lead over Russell to 68 points.
“Firstly, I’m not too sure why we got a penalty,” a disconsolate Russell told Sky Sports F1 afterwards. “I was on the pit-limiter before the line and after the line… clearly there’s a problem in the software. Five seconds, not ideal, not the end of the world.
“There was confusion in the pit-stop. Getting a drive-through… the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. P3 down to P14.”
Russell quickly went to the stewards’ room during the red-flag interval to plead his case but to no avail.
“I just asked ‘can we review it afterwards?’” he revealed. “If I serve the drive-through now… I probably gained a tenth of a second and it cost me 12 positions. They said rules are rules; you don’t serve your penalty, it’s a drive-through.
“I could’ve won the race 2 weeks ago, could’ve come third today… 40 points down the drain.”
As a result of Russell’s second consecutive point-less race and Lewis Hamilton’s second consecutive P2 finish, the 41-year-old actually overtakes Russell in the championship standings. Hamilton is now second, two points ahead, as we move on to Barcelona next week.
Antonelli, meanwhile, basked in delight as he became the youngest winner in the history of the Monaco Grand Prix at 19 years of age.
“It’s been an incredible weekend, incredible race, and one of those days where we had incredible pace,” he said. “The car was giving me the confidence to push, it was a very enjoyable day.
“The job is not finished, it’s a long season. We have to keep breaking the bar and keep performing like this. The team have given us an incredible car, it’s a really good moment so far.
“I wasn’t super keen on restarting! I just gather my emotions and thoughts, looked at some data, got tyres in the right temperature. Once I got away, I knew we’d make it into turn 1 ahead.”
Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen also failed to score points after a chaotic grand prix in the principality.
