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Disaster has struck Mercedes as George Russell will start the 2024 F1 US GP from the pitlane. The driver qualified for the race in P6 but his session ended with a major crash into the barriers. The crash meant that quite a few of the upgraded parts were damaged and there was even a suggestion from Lewis Hamilton that the driver could take parts from him.
As it turns out, the Mercedes driver has been forced to revert to the older spec and since that means changes being made to the car in Parc Ferme, Russell will start the race from the pitlane. He is going to accompany Lewis Hamilton at the back of the grid as even the team's senior driver could not even make his way through Q1.
Journalist Chris Medland was the first to report the pitlane start, as he posted on X:
"Pit lane start for George Russell incoming due to Mercedes needing to work on his car when cars were meant to be sealed under parc fermé (due to the damage from his qualifying crash). Had to change spec too. Had been P6 originally"
George Russell was worried about such a scenario happening. He had mentioned it in the post-qualifying scrum as he said:
“Right now, the concern is about the bits. We will have to revert on the upgrades. Lewis has kindly offered his ones, but we're not going to swap. So I don't know what's going to be happening now, but that's the biggest concern.”
George Russell disappointed by destroying the Mercedes upgrades with his crash
George Russell did say after the crash that he was pushing too hard in the car and trying to find the laptime that was ultimately not there. As a result, he pushed too hard and ended up crashing out at the penultimate corner of his flying lap.
The driver was apologetic to the team afterwards, as the new parts that had been specifically brought to the track were now destroyed and of no use whatsoever. He said:
"All season, when the car is in the sweet spot, we are fighting for poles and wins. Yesterday, we were both fighting for pole and today we were both almost out in Q1."
He added:
“I really pushed it on that last lap, and ultimately, trying to find performance that wasn't there and paid the price. And I'm really just disappointed with myself, because everyone's worked so hard to bring the upgrades. Now that is in the bin.”
It is still not clear where Russell's Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will start the race as even he had talked about starting from the pitlane after making changes to the car.
