30/08/2025
NEWS STORY
George Russell gets a warning and his team a €7,500 fine for FP3 incident involving Fernando Alonso.
The Spaniard was on a push lap and was exiting Turn 14 when Russell was on a slow lap and had been instructed to enter the pits.
The Aston Martin driver went on the inside of the Mercedes in an attempt to complete the lap but Russell, taking a wide line before entering the pits, nearly collided with the Spaniard at pit entry.
The Briton took evasive action and aborted the pit entry and continued on the track, while Alonso had to abort the lap and enter the pit lane to avoid a collision.
It was clear to the stewards that Russell had not been warned of the fact that Alonso was approaching and that it was on a push lap. His team admitted this at the hearing and acknowledged that they ought to have warned their driver but did not do so. Their failure created a dangerous situation where both cars had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
The stewards accepted that Russell had no way of knowing that Alonso was approaching, particularly given the nature of the circuit and the fact that Turn 14 is a blind corner. Merely looking at the mirrors would not have prevented what occurred.
They accordingly imposed a fine of €7,500 on the team for failing to warn their driver appropriately.
Nevertheless, given the nature of the circuit and the slow speed at which he was travelling, the stewards felt it would have been prudent for Russell to have kept more to the right of the track to leave space for faster cars coming around that corner and therefore also administered a warning to the Mercedes driver.
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