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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
George Russell will begin eighth on the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after he was penalised for impeding within the pit lane exit throughout Friday’s qualifying session.
Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had been additionally issued two-place grid penalties after falling foul of the identical rule breach and can drop to 14th and fifteenth on the grid.
A rule particular to this weekend and specified by the race director’s notes states that any driver attempting to create a niche to the automotive in entrance throughout a qualifying session should accomplish that by staying as far to the left as doable within the pit lane exit.
The pit lane exit at Interlagos runs on the within of Flip 1, the surface of Flip 2 and solely rejoins the observe after Flip 3.
The thought of the event-specific rule was to keep away from drivers both blocking the pit lane to create a niche, which was a difficulty on the final spherical in Mexico, or going gradual ion observe within the closing sector of the lap, which was thought of harmful and has been successfully been banned for a number of races.
Through the first a part of qualifying, the stewards decided that every one three drivers weren’t far sufficient to the left within the pit lane as he tried to create a niche and blocked different vehicles getting previous.
They issued a two-place grid penalty to the Mercedes driver, which drops Russell to eighth and strikes Lando Norris as much as sixth and Carlos Sainz as much as seventh.
“To be able to keep away from conditions like those that occurred in Mexico, the race director’s occasion notes for this occasion contained a selected clause (merchandise 14) stipulating that it was permitted to go gradual within the pit exit to create a niche earlier than crossing the SC2 line, nonetheless, by doing so, a driver should keep as far to the left as doable to permit different drivers to move on the suitable aspect,” the stewards’ assertion stated.
“Russell was exiting the pits, making ready for an out lap. Russell went gradual to create a niche for a transparent lap, however didn’t handle to remain fully to the left.
“Consequently, following automotive(s) weren’t capable of overtake, as supposed by the race director’s directions. This clearly violates the wording and the spirit of merchandise 14 of the race director’s occasion notes.”
The penalties for Ocon and Gasly had close to an identical wording.