Charles Leclerc will start the Bahrain Grand Prix from the front row of the grid after both Mercedes drivers were penalised for the same infringement in qualifying.
The stewards ruled Mercedes sent both cars out of their garage before they were permitted to when Q2 restarted following Esteban Ocon’s crash.
George Russell originally qualified second alongside pole-winner Oscar Piastri. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was due to start fourth in the other Mercedes. Both drivers were given one-place grid penalties.
Mercedes committed the infringement after its head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, misunderstood a message on the timing screen. He said he thought the FIA had issued a definitive restart time, not a provisional one.
“The team representative, Mr Shovlin, in evidence stated that he gave the instruction for the cars to be released, in error, having misinterpreted the message posted on page three of the timing screen, ‘estimated restart time’ to be a message advising the actual restart time,” the stewards noted. “He argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining (11 minutes) for other teams to perform their run plans.
“It was also noted that the team’s sporting director, Mr Meadows, was not present at the event and that normally he would be involved in the release process.”
The FIA noted that due to the limited amount of time available in qualifying, Mercedes stood to gain an advantage by ensuring their drivers joined the track immediately.
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“The FIA single seater sporting director stated that such a move could be a sporting advantage in that it could enable a team to perform its run plan whereas other teams may not be able to,” the stewards reported. “The stewards agree with this view particularly where there are only a few minutes remaining in the session.”
As a result, the stewards decided to issue a grid drop. They accepted Mercedes’ claim they had made an unintentional error and said in their verdict a similar infringement could result in tougher sanctions in future.
“The FIA sporting director argued that there needed to be a sporting penalty rather than a team fine, otherwise in future teams would release their cars as soon as the estimated restart time was published,” they noted. “The stewards agree with this view.
“Mr Shovlin argued that it was possible to give a non-sporting penalty if the stewards declared that it was not to be taken as a precedent but also stated that if a sporting penalty was to be given, it should be mitigated.
“The stewards agreed with the view that this breach required a sporting penalty however [they] accept that the breach was unintentional and a genuine mistake by the team for which Mr Shovlin apologised. We decide to impose a one position grid penalty. A similar breach in different circumstances, could entail a more severe sporting penalty in future.”
- Updated 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix grid
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2025 Bahrain Grand Prix