Russell, Antonelli drop one position for Bahrain GP starting grid

Russell and Antonello were under investigation after qualifying in Bahrain on Saturday after Mercedes released them into the pitlane before the race director specified the time of restart of the session that was red-flagged after the crash of Haas' Esteban Ocon in Q2.

As a result, Russell will start the race on Sunday from third with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc promoted to second, while Antonello will start the race from fifth with Alpine's Pierre Gasly promoted to fourth.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff spoke to Sky Sports F1 right after the qualifying regarding the incident and was hoping the stewards would not penalize the drivers, as he conceded it was a team error.

He said: "There's no precedent. It's a new rule in that sense, and we're going to see what the stewards say. I would hope that it's not the drivers who are penalised for it. It was a team mistake. We jumped the gun here."

However, the stewards insisted on delivering a sporting penalty so other Formula 1 teams would refrain from doing the same in the future and gain an advantage. The penalty was just one position since the mistake was unintentional.

The stewards said in the decision document on the matter: "The FIA Sporting Director argued that there needed to be a sporting penalty rather than a team fine, otherwise in future teams would release their cars as soon as the estimated re-start time was published. The Stewards agree with this view."

"It was a really strong Q3," Russell said later. "I wasn't really feeling the strongest through Qualifying. I didn't have the confidence and Q1 and Q2 were a real challenge.

"In Q3 I got back into my normal rhythm, put in some strong laps and I was really surprised to be so close to pole, ahead of one of the McLarens with Charles [Leclerc] up there too.

"Whilst we will ultimately start P3, it is still a good place to be for tomorrow," the Briton insisted.

"I don't expect it to be a straightforward race tomorrow," Russell went on. "I think Oscar [Piastri] is going to be very fast.

"The McLarens seem to be a long way ahead of the field when it comes to managing their tyres and we know that this will be key for tomorrow's race. Let's see what Sunday brings," he concluded.

As for Antonelli, he lamented having his first lap time deleted in Q3; he commented: "I made a mistake on lap one in Q3 and that put me on the back foot as I didn't have a lap on the board.

"There was plenty of pressure to deliver on lap two, therefore. It wasn't easy but I'm happy that I put together a decent lap.

"I made a few mistakes here and there across the session, but overall, it's still my highest grid position of the season despite the post-session penalty and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. My confidence is continuing to build but I'm still learning. This is another good step forward for me.

"I think the race will be a really tight fight," the Italian went on. "I think it's going to be really hard to challenge the McLarens, but it's definitely possible to fight the others.

"Tomorrow is a long race; our pace looks similar with others so getting a good start is going to be important and we'll see what we can do from there," Antonelli concluded.

Wolff added: "Today's Qualifying went much better than we expected. We were hopeful of fighting for best of the rest behind the McLarens, so to post the second and fourth fastest times was pleasing.

"There is also plenty of learnings we can take from today. In the daytime heat of FP3, we were looking a long way adrift of the McLarens. As we headed into the evening, and the track conditions cooled, we continued to close the gap. It was still warm out there, but it definitely came a little more towards us.

"Both drivers executed their final laps well and put themselves in a good position for tomorrow," he added crediting the job Russell and Antonello did.

As for the penalty, the Austrian said: "Ultimately, following the post-session penalty, we will start P3 and P5 tomorrow.

"That still gives us a good chance of fighting for the podium. This is one of the most race pace-biased Grands Prix of the year so, if we have the pace in the car, both George and Kimi will hopefully be able to move forward," he concluded.