George Russell's mistake in Q3 of the Austin GP was costly. Mercedes was forced to work on the car beyond the time allowed by the parc fermé regulations. For this reason, Russell will have to start the race from the pit lane.
Weekend compromised for Mercedes: Russell out of pit lane and Hamilton 18th
The American weekend is going almost entirely wrong for Mercedes. Despite a good start on Friday and a decent sprint on Saturday, in qualification the two silver arrows certainly did not shine. Lewis Hamilton in Q1 he was unable to go beyond 19th place, which on the grid will then become 18th due to the penalty given to Lawson. George Russell instead did his until the last attempt of Q3. But, during his attempt, he completely lost his car while taking turn 19. The Mercedes number 63 hit the barriers, being seriously damaged. Despite the accident, Russell should have kept his sixth position on the starting grid, but the damage suffered will force him to start from the pit lane.
Russell's car was fitted with the substantial updates brought by the team for the Austin GP. The changes had also led two Mercedes drivers to be optimistic for yesterday's sprint race. Good intentions, however, were denied by the actual results. The sprint saw the two German cars settle for a fifth and sixth place, while qualifying, as mentioned, was disastrous. But it didn't end there. In fact, Mercedes landed in the United States with only two packages of the new updates, one for each driver. Russell, having an accident in Q3, made the car unusable with the new specifications, thus being forced to fit spare parts from the old configuration used by his car.
Penalty for breaking parc fermé, not old specs
George Russell will therefore have to quickly get used to a completely different car compared to the one he drove up to Q3 in the Austin GP. The altruistic gesture of his teammate was in vain. In fact, Lewis Hamilton had offered to give his upgrade package to the sister car, in order to save the sixth position obtained by Russell at the end of qualifying. However, the option was discarded by the Mercedes team, as it would have meant committing to double and tiring work on both cars. The start from the pit lane, moreover, did not arrive because different spare parts were fitted compared to those used during this weekend.
Russell, despite being forced to race with a setup used in Singapore, will have to start from the pit lane for having broken article 40.6 of the regulation. The parc fermé rule, in fact, orders the teams to cover the cars, with special FIA seals, within two hours after the end of a session. Mercedes, on the other hand, was forced to work well beyond this time limit, as confirmed by one of its mouthpiece. "After yesterday's accident, the team had to work all night to restore the specifications, thus violating article 40.6. This establishes that the cars must be covered two hours after the end of qualifying".
Source: skysport.com