George Russell wants to be third in the World Championship

Stewards find culprit in Russell-Alonso near crash, and it's neither of them!

14:23, 30 Aug

byNorberto Mujica

During FP3 Fernando Alonso and George Russell nearly collided at the pit entry. This incident was set to be investigated by the Stewards who have now reached a verdict.

In the dying moments of the third and final practice session at Circuit Zandvoort, Alonso was going to abandon his push lap and bolt to the pits. Russell, however, was moving slowly ahead.

As the Spaniard turned to enter the pitlane, Russell did so as well, only to be caught out by the speed the Aston Martin driver was travelling in.

Alonso had to edge closer to the inside wall, with Russell veering left, then right again, to try and make the pit entry, before aborting his attempt to return to his garage and going for another lap.

The Stewards find Mercedes guilty over incident with Alonso

"The competitor (Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team) is fined €7,500. Warning to the driver of Car 63."

The race officials then explained the reasoning behind their verdict.

"The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 63 (George Russell), the driver of Car 14 (Fernando Alonso), team representatives and reviewed video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence.

"Car 14 was on a push lap and was exiting Turn 14 when Car 63 was on a slow lap and had been instructed to enter the pits.

"Car 14 went on the inside of Car 63 in an attempt to complete the lap but Car 63, taking a wide line before entering the pits, nearly collided with Car 14 at pit entry.

"Car 63 took evasive action and aborted the pit entry and continued on the track. Car 14 had to abort the lap and enter the pit lane to avoid a collision.

"It was clear to us that Car 63 had not been warned of the fact that Car 14 was approaching and that it was on a push lap.

"The team admitted this at the hearing and acknowledged that they ought to have warned the driver of Car 63 but did not do so. Their failure created a dangerous situation where both cars had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

"We accept that the driver of Car 63 had no way of knowing that Car 14 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.

"We 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, it would have been prudent for Car 63 to have kept more to the right of the track to leave space for faster cars coming around that corner. We also administer a warning to the driver for this."