George Russell picked up two penalties on the first day of the 2026 season for a pair of incidents in practice.
The Mercedes driver was reprimanded for colliding with Arvid Lindblad in the pits and received an official warning for breaking the rules on practice starts.
The stewards judged Russell responsible for colliding with Racing Bulls’ rookie as he tried to merge into the fast lane. After speaking to both drivers they ruled “the collision could have been avoided by car 63 [Russell] taking appropriate action.”
“Car 63 left the garage and was waiting to join the fast lane,” the stewards observed. “Car 63 inched forward, as if to join the fast lane and then stopped slightly ahead of car 41 [Lindblad], with a small portion of car 63 jutting into the fast lane. This resulted in car 41 running over that portion of the front wing end plate of car 63.
“There was no damage reported to us in relation to car 41 as a result of the collision. Appendix L Chapter IV of the FIA International Sporting Code read with the Race Director Competition Notes Item 15 gives priority to the cars in the fast lane over those in the working lane. In other words, car 41 had priority over car 63. Car 63 would only have been free to blend into the fast lane ‘if there [was] a suitable gap in a queue of cars in the fast lane’ and if it could be done safely and without unnecessarily impeding cars already in the fast lane.
“It is clear, in this case, that there was no such gap and the collision resulted from car 63 inching forward and thereby blocking a small portion of the fast lane. Both drivers agreed that the driver of car 41 would not have been able to see the portion that was blocking the fast lane.”
Russell told the stewards he performed his practice start in an incorrect location because the glare of the sun prevented him from seeing the grid boxes clearly. Although the stewards verified his claim, they nonetheless found him in breach of the rules.
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“The driver admitted that he performed a practice start outside the designated practice start area defined in Item 14.1 of the Race Director’s Competition Notes,” the stewards noted. “However, he explained that, due to sun haze, he was unable to clearly see the grid boxes and believed that the correct location was where the rubber marks were visible on the asphalt.
“Having viewed the driver’s onboard and CCTV footage, we accept that the sighting of the grid box was difficult given the light conditions but the driver was so far forward from the designated location that it was ahead of the protection of the pit wall and this incident occurred after the Race Director had warned all Teams of the need to comply with his instructions in this regard.
“The stewards determined that the driver failed to follow the Race Director’s instructions and impose a penalty consistent with the penalty for similar breaches in the past.”
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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