Russell escapes penalty over DRS alleged infringement

Russell suffered from several issues on his Mercedes W16 Formula 1 car as the transponder on it stopped working, which meant its exact location on the track could not be specified.

That meant the Briton could not use the DRS system as his position with respect to the car he was chasing was unknown, so Mercedes found a way to manually override the system and inform their driver when he could use it.

However, and before the race was over, Russell used the DRS briefly, which meant he was investigated after the race.

Speaking after the race, Russell insisted he should not be penalized. He told Sky Sports F1: "There was technical problems. I backed off. It was probably open for less than a second, so...

"I don't know how it got triggered There were all sorts of problems going on with the transponder and the signal to the car.

"I honestly can't give you an answer because I was losing everything on my steering wheel as well, I had no data. I lost all of that, so I was really compromised in that last stint.

"I don't know, it would be exceptionally harsh if something happened," he insisted.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also thought his driver should escape a penalty and referred to Baku 2018, when several drivers were investigated for using DRS when they should not have, and no further action was taken.

Wolff explained: "It opened and closed. There wasn’t any benefit. The system failed and we hope it will be alright.

"We don't know the [cause] yet. Maybe some wiring looms in the car, or maybe it was triggered by the F1 system failure and it caused our system to go bananas," he added.

Wolff hailed the job Russell did, defending from Lando Norris and managing to keep him at bay; he continued: "Him managing the system coming in and out while keeping Norris behind him is just an unbelievable drive.

"What he did secured a podium. On top of that, taking the soft for such a long time was also great between managing and then attacking when he needed to.

“If you haven't driven a race car that has a BBW or conventional brake, it’s like when power steering fails and then imagine you have to adjust between one corner having it and the next one not having it. That was just very good skill.

“We feared we would lose the whole dash which would mean no buttons, no wheels to turn any of the settings, no shift lights and we had it in the back of our mind that it takes concentration away," Wolff concluded.

As for the stewards decision, they stated in an FIA document: "On the straight between turns 10 and 11 he [Russell] tried to radio the team using this button but instead accidentally activated the DRS.

"The DRS was activated for a distance of 37 metres on a straight of approximately 700 metres. Whilst he gained 0.02 seconds, he gave up 0.28 seconds at the next corner to compensate. This was confirmed by telemetry.

"Accordingly whilst technically a breach occurred the Stewards decide that as there was no sporting advantage gained, no penalty is imposed," the stewards concluded.