‘We’ll try and come back through’ – Russell takes grid penalty at Sao Paulo Grand Prix

George Russell will take a grid penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix due to an engine change, marking his second such penalty in the last four rounds.

Russell was forced to serve a significant penalty at the Singapore Grand Prix due to a range of unavoidable power unit component changes, having retired with a power unit failure one week earlier at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

The Briton had been expected to serve another penalty at some stage during the remainder of the season and that will now happen at Interlagos, with the Mercedes driver discussing the decision to take it at this track in an Instagram Stories post shared by the team.

“I mean, we always had to take a grid penalty at some point between Singapore… obviously we took one in Singapore, but from Singapore until the end of the season,” Russell explained.

“We felt like this was a good place to take it. Lewis [Hamilton] had a big grid penalty here a number of years ago and did pretty well. Five places doesn’t seem that bad, and we’ll try and come back through.”

Hamilton was disqualified from Sprint Qualifying in Brazil back in 2021, forcing him to start the Sprint from the back of the field. He subsequently climbed through the field to fifth before winning Sunday’s Grand Prix from 10th, having taken another penalty.

With the change on Russell’s car being for a fresh Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), the British driver’s penalty has been confirmed as a five-place grid drop.

It comes one week on from a tough weekend in Mexico for Russell, with Team Principal Toto Wolff admitting that the 28-year-old had been “distraught” at the outcome.