Mercedes had a bittersweet qualifying session on Saturday at the Singapore GP, with Hamilton falling within thousandths of pole position in third and Russell failing to make it to Q3 and qualifying 11th.
However, the young Briton will start even further back, after the German team has decided to change his power unit and send him to the back of the grid, specifically to the pitlane. From there, the #63 will try to come back in search of the feat of reaching the top 10.
Mercedes has fitted George Russell’s car with a full suite of new power unit elements overnight, with as many as nine drivers gaining position with that move heading into the start.
This is the starting grid of the Singapore GP with Russell’s penalty
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It is a strategic move by Mercedes, which will now lose relatively little (Russell was already out of the fight for victory) and that gives it new and fresh components for the remainder of the course.
Russell gets a new V6, turbo, MGU-H, MGU-K, control electronics (CE) and energy storage system , which sends him down the pitlane. You have also installed a new exhaust, which is within the limit of allowed items.
After qualifying, Russell had indicated that the team had to try something to make the best of the situation they found themselves in.
“Regardless of how the performance is, you never want to start 11th in a grand prix where you have a car to fight for victory,” he said.
Russell had been plagued by a problem that seemed to cause his car to continue to brake in certain corners and had appeared constantly over the weekend.
Immediately after qualifying he did not know what the cause was, although it was later learned that it was related to the brakes.
