25/07/2025 18:50
George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda have been handed reprimands
following a stewards' investigation at the Belgian Grand Prix.
During the sprint qualifying session, both were alleged to have
breached the sporting regulations and failed to comply with the
race director's instructions by driving too slowly. Russell endured
a difficult session and ended the day in 13th place, while
team-mate Kimi Antonelli failed to advance out of the first
segment. Tsunoda also dropped out during SQ2, finishing one
position ahead of Russell in 12th. In Russell's ruling, the
stewards highlighted that Russell "stated that he misjudged the
distance from the cars in front and thought that they would allow a
bigger gap back to him in the final sector, and accordingly he
reduced speed to gain a gap which resulted in him exceeding the
maximum time". In Tsunoda's case, which occurred one minute before
Russell at the end of SQ1, the Japanese driver "thought he would
'make the time' but in this case he did not". Any driver who is
handed five reprimands in a season is handed an automatic 10-place
grid penalty. Russell now has one reprimand to his name, while
Tsunoda has two.
