Russell's double penalty that ruined Monaco GP explained

Two penalties wrecked George Russell's Monaco Grand Prix and ensured he's now 68 points behind his championship-leading Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

Russell was attempting to bounce back from a difficult qualifying session that left him sixth on the grid and was looking good to improve on that before he exceeded the pitlane speed limit.

He was found to be 0.1km/h over the 60km/h limit during his first pitstop, earning himself a five-second time penalty.

"The team said there was nothing I did wrong with the speeding in the pitlane," Russell explained after the race.

"It's a software issue, we don't know where from. A five second penalty is not ideal, but not the end of the world."

Russell might still have finished in the top five, but he didn't serve the penalty correctly when he pitted under a late-race safety car to cover Lance Stroll's crash.

His car should have been held in its pitbox for five seconds because it was worked on, but Mercedes - which had double-stacked its cars - began servicing it immediately.

"I got the drivethrough because there was a lot of confusion last-minute," Russell said.

"I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA pulled the cars through pitlane. I was asking the team, 'Am I stopping for tyres or not?' I didn't get an answer, but I saw my set of tyres there.

"Everything just happened too quick, and I guess the mechanics didn't get the message that they had to leave the car for five seconds.

"Then I was on the radio saying, 'I'm willing to serve the penalty in the next lap' because I had a 20-second gap to [Pierre] Gasly behind me, but the rules say we didn't serve the penalty correctly and the punishment's a drivethrough.

"I probably, with the software glitch, probably gained one tenth of a second in the whole pitlane and lost 13 positions."

Having emerged from the drivethrough in 15th and last, Russell ultimately ended up 12th in the classification - promoted by an immediate post-race penalty for Nico Hulkenberg and one later on Sunday evening for Sergio Perez.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said not serving the penalty properly was "clearly our mistake".

He added: "We need to look at our communication, whether we actually expected him to come in, because I think what I remember is about staying out and not coming in.

"But nevertheless, you've got to be on it to hold him, and we didn't."

'Whole season could look totally different'

Having spent post-qualifying expressing bafflement at why he was struggling compared to Antonelli and his potential driving style theory for that, Russell was most exasperated by his bad luck after the race.

"I'm beyond frustration now, it's just struggling to comprehend how on earth this season is panning out in the way in it has," he said.

"Yesterday was a bad day, and I accept that, but the result of the last two races, I wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada or the penalties today.

"But it's been completely outside of my control, and that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow.

"I don't ever really believe in good luck or bad luck, but when I look at the season as a whole, and leading the race in Canada, breakdown, could have been on the podium today, zero points, leading the race in Japan, safety car came out 10 seconds after my pitstop.

"There's not a lot, and the whole season could look totally different. Now, I'm [68] points off the lead."

Russell added: "We're not even 30% of the way through, but there's a lot of points down the drain. It's not been very enjoyable."

He said he was in a "very weird state of mind because I've had very low moments in my career where I've maybe had a run of two bad races or three bad races on my own personal performance".

"I've never had a run of bad luck like this. It didn't happen when the car was a P7 car two years ago or a P4, P3 car last year. Now I've got the car, it feels very painful.

"But there's a long way to go. I still very much believe in myself. I still believe we're going to be fighting for race wins to the end of this year.

"There's no reason why we won't be continuing in the next year, but right now it's tough."

Russell said "if things balanced out a little more" then the battle with Antonelli would be "very, very close" and he would have "at least two more victories".

As you'd probably expect, Wolff said he wasn't worried about Russell's form.

"I've talked with him yesterday and today. This is a long championship. Last year, I remember people saying, 'Well, [Oscar] Piastri has won that'. It's not necessarily only about one year, but it's many years," Wolff said.

"Luck swings in your direction, and then sometimes it doesn't. And it's not a question of not knowing how to drive.

"It's about having a car underneath that you feel confident with, and that you can go fast. And that's the fact. Formula 1 is about physics and not mystics.

"You don't unlearn how to drive, and you don't become a miracle wonder driver. So I'm not stressed at all for his performances, because we know he's one of the best."