After having a podium taken away from him at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last weekend, George Russell has taken to social media to try and get the trophy back to its actual owner, Fernando Alonso.
Russell enjoyed a strong weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and claimed a solid fourth place finish, before hailing the weekend as “one of my strongest weekends in F1”.
For a few hours after the race, though, his P4 was turned into P3, following a post-race 10-second time penalty for Alonso.
Alonso was awarded a five-second time penalty initially for starting outside his grid slot, before serving it during his one and only pit-stop.
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However, it was initially deemed by the FIA after the race that Alonso hadn’t served the penalty, due to the rear jack having been touching the car.
It was argued by Aston Martin that the rear jack was simply touching the car and not “working” on it, something which saw the 10-second time penalty revoked and Alonso’s 100th F1 podium reinstated.
As a result, Russell was bumped back to fourth, meaning he has a trophy to hand back.
“What’s your address, @alo_oficial?” asked Russell on Twitter.
When the 10-second time penalty was initially announced, Russell actually defended Alonso and criticised the FIA, with the Spaniard having “gained nothing” from starting to the left of his grid slot.
“I understand why these rules are there, we’ve got to stick within the guidelines, a little bit of common sense needs to be shown,” Russell said, as reported by Autosport.
“Ultimately I think he was a bit to the left, was that right? He gained nothing from this, perhaps a five-second [penalty] is too much.
“But then in regards to his pitstop again, I don’t know what happened and why he received a further penalty exactly, but a 10-second penalty is too extreme in that case again.”
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At the same time, Alonso felt that it was unfair on Russell and Mercedes to have simply been handed the trophy, with the Spaniard having collected it on the podium initially before being informed of the penalty.
“It’s not fair for George, because I guess the Mercedes sponsors would love to be on the podium,” Alonso said, as reported by Autosport.
“But for us, it’s good. We have Aramco we have the picture. And I think it’s not fair for George, because if he really was third in the race, he should enjoy the podium and not me.”