Autobayng News Team
George Russell believes a software problem caused five drivers to break the pit lane speeding limit by just 0.1kph during the Monaco Grand Prix.
He was one of five drivers to to collect the sanction. However Russell suffered the most because of it as he failed to serve his resulting five-second time penalty and consequently received a drive-through penalty.
“I’m not too sure why we got a penalty because I was on the pit limiter before the line,” said Russell. “I released it after the line but clearly there’s a problem in the software and many drivers got penalties.”
Russell received a harsher penalty after pitting during a Safety Car period but failing to serve his original penalty. He said the escalation in his sanction was too much.
“Five seconds is not ideal but not the end of the world. Then in the pit stop there was just major confusion and getting a drive-through [for that], the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”
The stewards issued six penalties for pit lane speeding during the race to five different drivers. Along with Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Franco Colapinto and Oscar Piastri also broke the pit lane speed limit by 0.1kph. Pierre Gasly did the same, then broke the limit by 0.4 kph when he came in a second time.
Russell already broke the pit lane speed limit earlier in the weekend during first practice, by 0.3kph. His team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli went 0.1kph over the limit in the second session,
Other drivers who broke the speed limit during practice included Fernando Alonso in the second session by 0.5kph and Alexander Albon by 0.2kph in the third. Colapinto exceeded the speed limit by a much higher amount, 8.9kph, in final practice.
Update: Alpine request Right of Review hearing over penalty which cost Gasly third place
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2026 Monaco Grand Prix
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- Cadillac lose first points finish after Perez penalised, Alonso scores for Aston Martin
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Browse all 2026 Monaco Grand Prix articles
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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine
