The F1 stewards handed George Russell a harsher penalty than usual for his corner cutting at the Monaco Grand Prix as they took a dim view of his radio comments afterwards
George Russell said it was “ironic” that he got a better result at the Monaco Grand Prix despite a hefty sanction. The British driver was handed a drive-through penalty during the race which saw him lose around 20 seconds in time.
That was for deciding to cut the Nouvelle Chicane in anger, having been stuck behind Alex Albon while the Williams racer was driving intentionally slowly. He was doing so to give team-mate Carlos Sainz a pit window in which he wouldn’t lose any places on track, using the narrow Monte Carlo streets to their advantage.
Russell cut the chicane to overtake Albon and refused to give the place back when asked to do so by his Mercedes race engineer. He said over the radio he would rather take the penalty, which was not well received by the stewards.
In a statement, they confirmed that they had taken that as evidence that he cut the corner intentionally and, instead of a five or 10 second time penalty, that meant they opted for the more severe sanction of a drive-through penalty which cost him around 20 seconds overall.
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But, because Albon was moving so slowly, Russell made up most of that time before he even served the penalty. And, reflecting on it ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, the Brit lamented that he didn’t get the chance to have fun driving around Monaco, mostly because his power unit problem in qualifying left him so far down the order.
He said: “I was getting tired of staring at the back of a Williams rear wing for 50 laps, to be honest. It was a bit ironic because I finished higher up the order by doing that move than I would have done if I just stuck behind Alex. I pulled a [gap to cover a] whole pit stop in the space of three laps and then I was free to do my own race.
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“The weekend was gone so early. We weren’t fighting for anything. You get the same points for P11 as you do for P20. I just wanted to enjoy Monaco – I didn’t get the chance on Saturday.
“It’s the most adrenaline you get in a whole season and I didn’t have that chance because of what happened. I at least enjoyed the last 25 laps of the race. It’s not part of a new, ‘George Russell being a rebel cutting the track’ – it was just getting tired of seeing Alex driving like a grandma.
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“It was a deserved penalty. I think that should never be allowed. If I was in the points and if I was racing Alex, I would never have done that. He had already done two pit stops. I hadn’t even done one single pit stop. He was only driving so slow to benefit his team-mate. It wasn’t to benefit him against me, it was to benefit him against the drivers around him.
“So, as I said, I wasn’t doing it for a sporting gain. I was just doing it for my own enjoyment because it was a bit rubbish. But the penalty I received, on any other circuit, in any other circumstance, was more than fair.” The pair of them buried the hatchet in the hours after the race, with Albon picking up the bill after they had dinner together.