BREAKING: Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying result changes as George Russell punished for 'dodgy' act

Mercedes have been punished for their "dodgy" act during qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. George Russell had qualified second with team-mate Kimi Antonelli fourth, but both drivers have now been handed a grid drop.

were placed under investigation over the incident which happened in the second part of qualifying. That section was interrupted by a red flag after Esteban Ocon lost control while on a flying lap and crashed his Haas.

After the wreckage was cleared away, Mercedes were too hasty in their desire to get both their drivers back on track. Russell and Antonelli were cleared to leave their garages and drive to the end of the pit lane before an official restart time had been communicated by race control.

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The medical car was still in the pit lane, dropping Ocon back off at the Haas garage at the time. The presence of the Mercedes cars did not interfere with the medical car's operations in any way.

But Nico Hulkenberg spotted that they had driven into the pit lane early, after being told by his Sauber team over the radio: "We cannot go out yet, we don't have an official restart time." The German described the Mercedes cars as "dodgy".

Silver Arrows team principal admitted that they had made a mistake but hoped that the punishment would be financial rather than sporting. "There’s no precedent [for this incident]. It's a new rule in that sense and we're going to see what the stewards say," he said.

"I would hope that it's not the drivers who are penalised. It was a team mistake. We jumped the gun here and it was in Q2, [not] in Q3."

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