SAKHIR, Bahrain : George Russell held onto second place at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday despite hitting the wrong button on his steering wheel and activating his Mercedes’s drag reduction system (DRS) when it was not allowed.
Stewards decided not to impose a penalty because the error was triggered by a fault in the timing system provided by an external party that meant the driver had to activate DRS manually.
“At the time the driver was experiencing a brake-by-wire issue and other electronic issues,” stewards said in a report explaining their decision.
“He was… advised to use an auxiliary button in the cockpit which serves as a back up radio button but also serves as a manual DRS activation button.
“On the straight between turns 10 and 11 he tried to radio the team using this button but instead accidentally activated the DRS.”
Stewards said the DRS, used for overtaking, was activated for only a distance of 37 metres on a 700m straight, delivering a gain of 0.02 seconds before Russell gave up 0.28 seconds at the next corner.
Russell managed to fend off McLaren’s championship leader Lando Norris, who finished third, despite the problems for his best result so far this season.
“The steering wheel wasn’t working properly, so it was really hard fought to keep Lando behind. I think one more lap, he would have got me pretty comfortably,” he told reporters before his trip to the stewards.
“We basically were having all sorts of failures and we did an override on the DRS. And on one lap, I clicked the radio button and the DRS opened, so I straightaway closed it again, backed off – nothing gained.
“I lost more than I gained, it was only open for a split second, so kind of goes to show you the amount of issues we were having.
“I was pretty pleased when I saw the chequered flag, to be honest.”
