Russell escapes penalty despite DRS infringement

Having secured a brilliant second-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix, George Russell has escaped a possible infringement revolving around his faulty drag reduction system.

George Russell qualified second, but started from third place at today's Bahrain Grand Prix after receiving a grid drop penalty for a sporting infringement from his team.

The British driver made up a place at the start, and managed to hold on to this position until the chequered flag fell in Sakhir. However, he was under investigation after a possible DRS infringement during the latter stages of the race in Bahrain.

The Mercedes driver was managing a number of bizarre electrical gremlins from the middle part of the race. It emerged during the 57-lap race that he once pressed the team radio button which also opened the DRS on his Mercedes F1 car.

This took place outside the designated DRS zone and thus would normally contravene the rules. The incident was investigated, and the stewards elected not to penalize Russell which meant that he could keep his second-place finish at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Explaining the incident, the stewards noted: “The connection between the automated DRS activation system and the car failed due to issues with a timing loop provided by an external party.

“Therefore the FIA authorised manual activation of the DRS in accordance with Article 22.1 h). At the time the driver was experiencing a brake-by-wire issue and other electronic issues.

“He was at that time advised to use an auxiliary button in the cockpit which serves as a back up radio button but also serves as a manual DRS activation button.

“On the straight between turns 10 and 11 he tried to radio the team using this button but instead accidentally activated the DRS. The DRS was activated for a distance of 37 metres on a straight of approximately 700 metres.

“Whilst he gained 0.02 seconds, he gave up 0.28 seconds at the next corner to compensate. This was confirmed by telemetry.

“Accordingly whilst technically a breach occurred the Stewards decide that as there was no sporting advantage gained, no penalty is imposed.”