George Russell will start the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix from pit lane.
The Mercedes driver missed a berth in Qualifying 3 on Saturday evening and was set to start the race from 11th.
Instead, Russell will now start the race from pit lane after taking a raft of new power unit elements.
It caps off a trying build-up to the race where he struggled with braking issues on Saturday, and a torque-related complaint on Friday which persisted into qualifying.
“I had a recurring issue that we faced in FP1 where I kind of felt like every time we got to the corner, I was kind of like picking up the throttle and the car was totally pushing on,” Russell explained following Qualifying.
“I think we see this issue on the data but it got progressively worse as qualifying continued, so I just couldn’t get around any of the slow-speed corners.
“It’s literally like someone was trying to push me from behind.”
Team boss Toto Wolff added: “We had a problem in FP1 which reappeared now, which as a torque following.
“He says the feeling is like you’re having 10 percent throttle that’s pushing you into the corner, and obviously in damp in Singapore with a 10 percent open throttle, you can’t properly drive.
“And then there was an unidentified brake issue which he spoke about which we haven’t seen yet. But it was the car that let him down.”
Ahead of today’s race, the FIA confirmed that Mercedes had made a number of changes that will see Russell absent from the grid.
The Brit will however sport a new internal combustion unit, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store, and control electronics.
” Having received a report from the Technical Delegate (Doc 45) the above mentioned changes to the Power Unit Elements have been made to the car,” the stewards’ report noted.
“In addition, the PU components were changed while the car was under parc ferme without the permission of the Technical Delegate, in breach of Article 40.3 of the Sporting Regulations.
“The penalty for such a change is prescribed in 40.9 (b) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and requires the car to start the race from the pit lane.”
Russell’s pit lane start is the only change to the grid order from that which ended Qualifying on Saturday.
The Singapore Grand Prix begins at 20:00 local time (13:00 BST/08:00 ET/23:00 AEDT).
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