FIA delivers verdict on Mercedes pitlane blunder in Australia F1 qualifying

Mercedes and Andrea Kimi Antonelli have escaped any serious sanction for an unsafe pitlane release during qualifying for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

The team dominated Saturday at Albert Park, as George Russell topped all three qualifying segments on his way to the first pole of the new season.

He led a Mercedes 1-2 ahead of team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was able to join qualifying following the red flag period triggered by Max Verstappen’s crash after his car was rebuilt from a huge FP3 shunt.

Antonelli instantly lifted himself into the front row fight and was just under three tenths shy of polesitter Russell.

However, his second-place was put under threat due to an FIA investigation over an unsafe pitlane release in Q3, in which his car was sent out on track with the cooling fans still attached to its sidepods.

One ended up on the racing line, with McLaren’s Lando Norris striking his front wing on it, before a red flag was flown to clear the debris.

But Mercedes has escaped a grid penalty or more serious sanction, and has instead been fined €7,500 for the incident.

The team blamed this on the usual team member in charge of removing the cooling fans was otherwise occupied, as a legacy of the immense rebuild that took place on Antonelli’s car after FP3.

Full FIA stewards’ judgement on Kimi Antonelli

The full release from the FIA stewards’ read: “Car 12 (Antonelli) was released from its garage during the session with a duct cooling fan still attached on the right side of the car.

“The fan assembly disconnected from the duct of Car 12 as it negotiated Turn 1, split apart and one section of it bounced off the track onto the gravel at the exit. Another section of the fan assembly dislodged onto the track at Turn 2 and was later struck by the front wing and tyre of another car causing debris to be strewn over the track, damage to the front wing of the other car

and the session had to be red-flagged to remove the debris.

“The team explained that an incident in an earlier session in which Car 12 had

sustained significant damage meant that the division of labour within the team had to

be changed to repair the damage within a short time frame.

“Usually, a separate team member would have responsibility for inserting and removing each fan but the need to address legacy issues from the earlier incident during the session meant that the team member responsible for the fan on that side of the car was occupied on another task and the removal of the fan before the car was released from the garage was missed.

The team (and the driver) were unaware that the fan had not been removed until the

incident was noted by Race Control. The stewards determine that because Car 12 left its garage with a piece of equipment still attached, it was released in an unsafe condition and the stewards

impose a fine on the Competitor accordingly.

The competitor (Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team) is fined €7,500.”