Russell to start from the pit lane after parc ferme breach
Having endured a heavy crash at the end of yesterday's qualifying, Mercedes driver George Russell will start from the pit lane at today's 45th United States Grand Prix.
Running the comprehensive upgrade package that Mercedes introduced for this weekend's Austin F1 round, George Russell displayed impressive pace in the sprint qualifying to secure second spot for the 19-lap sprint race.
However, he suffered from serious tyre overheating in the 100km dash, and ended the race down in P5. The Briton then managed to fight his way into the last segment of the main qualifying session, but he never looked to be in contention for top places.
He then pushed extremely hard into Turn 19 and lost control of the back of his W15, crashing heavily into the barriers. He was okay, but the resultant yellow flags meant no one else was able to complete their second flying laps out there.
Mercedes only had two new upgrades kits, one for Russell and another one for his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The scale of the job that the Brackley-based outfit was required to carry out resulted in a breach of the rules, and it will force Russell to start from the pit lane. In fact, the heavy damage meant that Mercedes needed to continue to work on the car beyond the cut-off time two hours after the end of qualifying.
A statement from Mercedes noted: "Unfortunately George will start today’s race from the pit lane.
"After yesterday’s accident, the team had to work through the night to revert on specification thus contravening Article 40.6 that says cars must be covered two hours after the end of qualifying."
