George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli have been summoned to the Bahrain Grand Prix stewards after entering the pit lane fast lane before the official confirmation of the restart time for the Q2 session in qualifying.
The middle part of qualifying was interrupted due to an accident involving Esteban Ocon in Turn 3, which led to a brief pause to recover his car from the gravel and inspect the barriers for potential damage.
The FIA then sent a message via a race control bulletin with an estimated restart time, though it was not officially confirmed. Mercedes decided to send both drivers to the end of the pit lane; Nico Hulkenberg was then heard commenting that “this doesn’t seem right,” while his race engineer, Steven Petrik, told him to stay in the garage.
The German driver later joined the Mercedes duo in the fast lane once the restart time was officially confirmed.
Both Antonelli and Russell have been called to the stewards for “allegedly violating Article 12.2.1 i) of the International Sporting Code and not adhering to the instructions of the race director (point 19, document 23) – entering the pit lane fast lane before the official restart time was confirmed.”
Speaking to Sky, team principal Toto Wolff stated that this is a new rule and that he is unaware of any precedents that could indicate what penalty might follow.
“This is a new rule in that sense, so we will see what the stewards say. I hope the drivers won’t be the ones penalized,” said Wolff.
“We are the ones who made the mistake by reacting too early, but we’ll see what happens.”
Russell joined Oscar Piastri in the provisional front row of the Bahrain Grand Prix starting grid after showing excellent pace in Q3, while Antonelli achieved his best result so far – fourth place.
The two Mercedes were separated by Charles Leclerc, who, thanks to new Ferrari upgrades, found extra confidence and secured third place for Sunday’s race.
