Mercedes under investigation over Q2 garage exit incident at Bahrain GP

George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli have both been summoned by the Bahrain Grand Prix stewards for entering the fast lane of the pitlane before a Q2 restart time was officially declared in Formula 1 qualifying.

The intermediate stage of qualifying was interrupted by Esteban Ocon’s crash at Turn 3, which enforced a short hiatus in running to extricate his Haas from the gravel and check the wall for damage.

The FIA then sent out a message on its race control bulletin stating an estimated restart time – although this was not marked as an official time. Mercedes elected to send both drivers out regardless to the end of the pitlane; Nico Hulkenberg was heard to remark that he thought it was “dodgy”, as his race engineer Steven Petrik told him to remain in the garage.

The German then joined the Mercedes duo in the fast lane when the start time was officially confirmed.

Both Antonelli and Russell were granted stewards’ summons, stating an “alleged breach of Article 12.2.1 i) of the International Sporting Code and noncompliance with Race Director’s Event Note (item 19, document 23) – Entering fast lane in the pit lane before a re-start time was confirmed.”

Speaking to Sky, team principal Toto Wolff stated that this was a new rule and that he was not aware of any precedents that would indicate how the team would be punished.

“It’s a new rule in that sense, and we’re going to see what the stewards said. I would hope that it’s not the drivers who were penalised for it,” Wolff said.

Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images

“It was our mistake that we jumped the gun here, but we’ll see what happens.”

Russell joined Oscar Piastri on the front row of the Bahrain GP’s provisional grid after finding strong pace in Q3, while Antonelli marked his best performance with fourth.

The two Mercedes were separated by Charles Leclerc, who found confidence with Ferrari’s new updates to burst into third place for Sunday’s grid.