Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying results changed as Mercedes slapped with brutal penalties

and have been hit with one-place grid penalties for the after Mercedes were judged to have breached the sporting regulations in qualifying. The Silver Arrows enjoyed an exceptional qualifying session at the Sakhir International Circuit, with Russell finishing second only to pole-winner Oscar Piastri, and rookie team-mate Antonelli scoring his career-best result in P4.

However, that result was placed in jeopardy after Mercedes representatives were called to the stewards to discuss a possible regulation breach. After Esteban Occon's Q2 crash triggered a red flag, the Silver Arrows sent their cars into the pit-lane exit queue prematurely, catching the eye of the FIA, and Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber garage.

After a lengthy meeting with the stewards, both drivers received one-place grid penalties. "The team representative, Mr Shovlin, in evidence stated that he gave the instruction for the cars to be released, in error, having misinterpreted the message posted on page three of the Timing Screen, "estimated re-start time" to be a message advising the actual re-start time," the stewards explained.

"He argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining (11 minutes) for other teams to perform their run plans.

"It was also noted that the team's Sporting Director, Mr Meadows, was not present at the event and that normally he would be involved in the release process. The FIA Single Seater Sporting Director stated that such a move could be a sporting advantage in that it could enable a team to perform its run plan whereas other teams may not be able to.

"The Stewards agree with this view particularly where there are only a few minutes remaining in the session. The FIA Sporting Director argued that there needed to be a sporting penalty rather than a team fine, otherwise in future teams would release their cars as soon as the estimated re-start time was published. The Stewards agree with this view."

The penalties for Russell and Antonelli have knock-on effects for the rest of the grid. Russell drops from second to third, promoting Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc onto the front row alongside Piastri.

Further back, Antonelli's qualifying still stands as his best in F1, but the Italian teenager will drop from fourth to fifth, behind Alpine star Pierre Gasly, who was the standout performer on Saturday.