{"id":627314,"date":"2026-06-08T09:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T09:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627314\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T09:56:11","slug":"mercedes-overruled-russell-when-he-urged-them-to-serve-five-second-penalty-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627314\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes overruled Russell when he urged them to serve five-second penalty \u2013 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> urged Mercedes to attempt to serve the five-second time penalty he failed to take during the Monaco Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

However the team decided against following his suggestion after telling the driver they believed he had served the penalty. The stewards decided Russell had not served the penalty and issued an even tougher sanction which cost him a points finish in the race.<\/p>\n

His problems began when he collected a five-second time penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 0.1kph when he made his first pit stop. He should have served the penalty at his second pit stop, but Mercedes failed to do so as he came into the pits unexpectedly.<\/p>\n

Russell entered the pits a second time when the field was instructed to do so on lap 60 due to Lance Stroll\u2019s<\/a> crash at the final corner. The communications between driver and team became confused at this point.<\/p>\n

Before the Safety Car period Russell\u2019s race engineer Marcus Dudley originally told him he was in his \u201cSafety Car window\u201d, i.e. he should expect to pit if the Safety Car was deployed. However when the Safety Car was deployed Mercedes instead told him to stay out and he duly passed the pit lane entrance on lap 59.<\/p>\n

The next time around Dudley reminded him not to pit but now all cars were told to pass through the pit lane entrance. Expecting to be told to pit, Russell drove to the Mercedes garage where his team mate\u2019s car was being serviced.<\/p>\n

Russell arrived slowly at the Mercedes pit box due to the presence of his team mate\u2019s car. When the Mercedes crew changed Russell\u2019s tyres they did not wait before doing so as teams ordinarily do to observe penalties.<\/p>\n

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Lap: 59\/78 RUS: 1\u201927.497<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nGot a yellow flag, final corner, Stroll in the wall.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nWindow?<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nWe are in the Safety Car window. So staying out, staying out. Safety Car, Safety Car.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nConfirm it\u2019s staying out. We\u2019ve got a little bit of graining, nothing crazy.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nStay out, stay out.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nI mean they\u2019re very\u2026 The circuit is pretty dangerous.<\/p>\n

Lap: 60\/78 RUS: 2\u201917.686<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nSo Safety Car exit of turn one.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nThe track\u2019s cleaning up.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nSo stay on your delta. Safety Car now at turn three. And we are monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nGreen 12 position three.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nStaying out. Staying out.
The Safety Car ahead goes into the pits, Russell follows it<\/p>\n

Russell
\nBoth talk over each other
We have to go into the pit lane, get tyres.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nSafety Car in the pit lane, Safety Car in the pit lane.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nRussell approaches the pit box slowly
Get tyres ready to swap. What am I doing?
The crew change his tyres but do not observe the five-second time penalty<\/p>\n

Russell was immediately concerned that he had not served the penalty correctly. When he tried to press the team for an answer Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff interjected to shut down the conversation, just as he did in Canada when Russell\u2019s team mate suggested he should receive a penalty.<\/p>\n

Lap: 61\/78 RUS: 1\u201951.805<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nAnd watch the line on the exit<\/p>\n

Russell
\nRussell has fallen behind Hadjar again
Hadjar on\u2026 Hadjar boxed?<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nAffirm.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nSafety Car will take the start-finish straight<\/p>\n

Russell
\nWas I meant to be boxing then? For tyres or not?<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nEr, negative, we\u2019ll discuss that later though.<\/p>\n

Lap: 62\/78 RUS: 2\u201900.418<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nThey\u2019re just waiting for the Safety Car to let cars through.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nAnd have I served my penalty or not?<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nWe\u2019ll just follow the Safety Car for now.<\/p>\n

Wolff
\nGeorge, let\u2019s talk about it after.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nYeah, I just need to know if I\u2019m getting a five-second penalty and I\u2019m stuck behind Hadjar on hard tyres.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nGeorge, George, I\u2019ll give you the messages as the messages come through, okay?<\/p>\n

Russell
\nYeah, alright, mate.<\/p>\n

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The race restarted briefly as Charles Leclerc<\/a> crashed at Anthony Noghes, triggering another Safety Car period.<\/p>\n

At this point Russell spied an opportunity to serve his penalty. The cars immediately behind him were a lap down and the next driver he was racing for position, Pierre Gasly<\/a>, was over 10 seconds behind.<\/p>\n

With the field due to pass through the pits again, Russell therefore suggested he stop to serve his five-second penalty, as it would not cost him track position. Pitting when the field passes through the pits during a Safety Car period is permitted by the regulations.<\/p>\n

However Dudley told him that, in Mercedes\u2019 view, he had served the five-second time penalty because of his delay when he pitted:<\/p>\n

Lap: 65\/78 RUS: 1\u201921.793<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nThe race restarts
Kimi has gone.<\/p>\n

Lap: 66\/78 RUS: 1\u201955.061<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nLeclerc off final corner. Safety Car, Safety Car.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nIf we\u2019re coming through the pit lane, consider if I\u2019ve got the gap to do the stop-and-go. The five seconds.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nSo we were stationary for over five seconds, George, so we\u2019ll wait for the update on race control.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nJust ask if Kimi just keeps the pace up on the delta, I\u2019ve got the gap behind me to do it.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nWe will be passing through the pit lane.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nDo you copy what I say here, mate?<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nI do, I do. I copy.<\/p>\n

Russell
\nYeah, we\u2019ve got 14 seconds behind, so we can just do it in case we need to.<\/p>\n

Mercedes therefore told Russell not to stop in his pit box:<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nSo we\u2019ll just pass straight through the pit lane here, George, we will not stop.<\/p>\n

Dudley
\nRussell follows the pack into the pits
Green 12 position 4, nice and slow through the pit lane. Limiter on, lots of cars getting penalties for speeding in the pit lane.<\/p>\n

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However the stewards did not agree Russell had served his penalty. As they appear not to have issued a decision document relating to this, it is not possible to examine their reasons. The stewards did issue such a document when Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> was penalised for failing to serve a penalty correctly at the Brazilian Grand Prix last year.<\/p>\n

In Tsunoda\u2019s case, he failed to serve a 10-second time penalty because a mechanic loosened a wheel nut too soon. The stewards issued him a further 10-second time penalty.<\/p>\n

The F1 stewards\u2019 guidance for drivers in cases of \u201cfailure to comply with in-race penalty procedure\u201d is that one of four penalties may be issued: a five or 10-second time penalty, drive-through or stop-and-go penalty. However it notes \u201cmitigating or aggravating circumstances will be taken into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Russell\u2019s case they plainly disagreed with Mercedes\u2019 view that the penalty had been served. It\u2019s far from certain Russell\u2019s proposal to make up for that would have made any difference, but he clearly had a more realistic view of whether he had served the penalty than his team did.<\/p>\n

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2026 Monaco Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2026 Monaco Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell urged Mercedes to attempt to serve the five-second time penalty he failed to take during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-627314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}