By Martyn Herman
MONACO, June 7 (Reuters) – Mercedes driver George Russell’s F1 Championship hopes took a battering for the second successive race as a drive-through penalty left the Briton out of the points in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.
Russell was initially handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, one of five drivers guilty of that offence in a race won by his team mate Kimi Antonelli.
He was then handed a drive-through penalty for not observing the five-second penalty when he made his pit stop.
Forced to take his punishment in the final laps after the race was re-started following a red flag, Russell plummeted down the order to finish in 13th.
After his retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix and his frustration in Monaco, Russell has now dropped to third in the driver standings behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and trails Antonelli by a massive 68 points.
“Firstly, I’m not too sure why we got a penalty because I was on the pit limiter before the line,” he said of his initial offence. “I released it after the line. But clearly there’s a problem in the software and many drivers got penalties.
“Then in the pit stop, just major confusion, and getting a drive-through (penalty) – the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
“I don’t know what to say. It’s two races in a row — could have won the race last week, could have maybe been P3-P4 today, it’s 40 points down the drain for things outside of my control.”
Russell was not the only one to fall foul of speeding in the pit lane. Runner-up Hamilton served a five-second penalty while in his scheduled pit stop but it did not harm his race.
The same could not be said for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who was twice pinged for the offence and despite finishing third on the road after the late re-start, his 10-second penalty dropped him to seventh.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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