Mercedes Receives Fine From FIA Following Russell's Incident

Saturday, 06 April 2024 at 11:09

Mercedes was fined after an investigation into George Russell's incident in the pit lane during qualifying for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix came to conclusion.

Mercedes F1 driver George Russell had an incident with McLaren's Oscar Piastri as he came out of his garage during the Q1 of the qualifying session.

The 25-year-old apparently didn't see the approaching Australian driver, who was celebrating his 23rd birthday today, and almost collided with him.

Piastri had to steer to the left to avoid a Mercedes that looked closer than he was comfortable with. Fortunately, there was no collision, but the incident was noted to be investigated after the session ended.

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Stewards summoned both Russell and Piastri with their representatives and listened to what the drivers had to say before delivering their final decision.

A grid penalty was on the table for the Mercedes driver going into the hearing with stewards, but fortunately for him, he got away without it. As a result of the incident, Mercedes was fined 5000€. The document from the stewards read:

"The driver of Car 63 stated that on receiving the release signal from his mechanic, he had intended to drive down the working lane, however he saw the mechanic from Car 44 in his peripheral vision and in order to avoid him, he claimed he had to move into the fast lane. He was not able to see the approach of Car 81"

You can see Lewis Hamilton on Russell's right-hand side in the video above. The 25-year-old wanted to be careful with his teammate as they were released at the same time, and everything would have been fine if Piastri hadn't had to take "avoiding action."

"The driver of Car 81 stated that he had to take avoiding action by steering away from the approaching Car 63."

"It is still the responsibility of the team to release the car in a safe manner and good practice would dictate that prior to the car being released, the pit lanes (both fast and working) should be checked for approaching vehicles."