George Russell will start the United States Grand Prix from the pit lane after an enforced parc ferme breach from the Mercedes team. Mercedes had to break the ‘cars covered’ period two hours after the end of qualifying and worked through the night to repair Russell’s car following his Q3 crash on Saturday at the Circuit of The Americas track.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Mercedes here at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. On Saturday Lewis Hamilton was surprisingly eliminated in Q1, as a front suspension issue on his W15 that occurred during the F1 Sprint Race earlier in the day created problems that one of the world’s legendary drivers simply could not overcome during the session.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff labelled a five-second penalty given to George Russell as a “total joke” in the early stages of the US Grand Prix. Russell, who started in the pit-lane, was making his way through the field when he went for an overtake on Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas.