F1 star's podium finish under threat as FIA announce late investigation

oscar piastri, lando norris, george russell, italian grand prix, 2024, monza — Photo: © IMAGO

Bahrain Grand Prix

F1 star's podium finish under threat as FIA announce late investigation

The stewards could ruin a driver's whole weekend on Sunday evening

Chris Deeley

Sunday 13 April 2025 19:33 Updated: 22:22

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George Russell is in danger of being stripped of his second place at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with the FIA announcing a post-race investigation.

The Mercedes driver has been summoned to speak to the stewards after the race in relation to an alleged breach of rules governing when DRS may and may not be used.

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Russell was having some issues with his deployment system, and appeared to open the rear wing outside of a DRS zone, when not within a second of the driver ahead of him.

Any time penalty conferred on him would drop him from second to fourth place at best, with a five or ten-second penalty pushing him down below Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, and anything more – highly unlikely – promoting Lewis Hamilton to fourth.

Will George Russell lose his podium to a penalty?

An FIA statement read: "The driver and team representative are required to report to the Stewards at 20:45, in relation to the incident below:

"Alleged breach of Article 22.1 h) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations – Alleged usage of the DRS system outside the pre-defined activation zones."

Russell spoke immediately after the race about the issue, insisting that he had gained no advantage and may have in fact lost time as a response to the automated mistake.

"We were having all sorts of failures and basically we had to do an overdrive on the DRS and on one lap I clicked the radio button and the DRS opened. So I straight away closed it again, backed off, nothing gained. I lost more than I gained, it was only open for a split second."

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Mercedes FIA Lando Norris George Russell Charles Leclerc Bahrain Grand Prix