'Fair Penalty': Russell Reacts To Dropping One Position After Sprint Finish

Sunday, 22 October 2023 at 15:00

Updated at Wednesday, 25 October 2023 at 21:42

Mercedes F1 driver George Russell responded to penalties from stewards after the Sprint Shootout and Sprint race during the 2023 United States Grand Prix Weekend.

George Russell received his first penalty before the sprint race even began. The British driver failed to get out of the way of the Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Clearly annoyed Monegasque driver who was on the fast lap commented on the incident in the team radio shortly after: "And penalty for Mr Russell, thank you."

Russell was summoned to stewards following the incident and received a 3-position grid drop penalty, meaning he would start from the 11th place instead of the 8th for the sprint race.

The sprint race went reasonably well for Russell when he moved up the grid to finish in 7th place. However, the 25-year-old then dropped because of one more penalty he received during the sprint.

While struggling Oscar Piastri, driving a McLaren, was falling down the grid, Russell went for an overtake around the outside on the Australian driver.

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Not having enough space, Russell decided to finish the overtake outside the track limits, resulting in an illegal overtake. The British driver received a five-second penalty and told the media after the race:

“"I think it was a fair penalty, to be honest. I knew Oscar had the right to push me off. I was hoping he didn't, but by that point, I sort of committed to it."”

Usually, Russell would have to give the position back to Piastri not to receive the penalty, but he decided to continue with his race.

“"I thought, what will be, will be. Ultimately, the five seconds was fair. It was a shame I couldn't get past Carlos because I think I could have pulled the five seconds to Gasly, but in the end, it's been a scrappy day."”

The five-second penalty moved the Mercedes driver one position down to the final finish in P8. Russell admitted the punishment was fair and added he hoped for a cleaner race the next day.