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George Russell took a solid fourth place in the sprint race determining his starting position for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. He did so, however, with a different specification of rear wing to that he used in qualifying.
Mercedes was forced to fit a higher-downforce component after the doubled Q3 accidents of Russell and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton meant the team had no spare of the same specification.
The team brought three low-downforce wings appropriate to the Red Bull Ring’s layout but the crashes destroyed two of them. The surviving one was fitted to Hamilton’s car, obliging Russell to take the less than optimum wing.
In a sprint weekend format such as this, parc ferme conditions apply from Friday qualifying onwards. Normally, any such change of specification under conditions of parc ferme bring a penalty of starting the grand prix from the pitlane.
However, there is an allowance in the regulations covering the eventuality of not having the necessary spares. It states: “Exceptionally, at an event where a sprint session is scheduled, replacement parts that are different in design will be permitted provided that the part is of a specification that has been used previously in a qualifying practice session or a race.”
The wing used by Russell has in fact been used previously this season and so dispensation was granted and Russell will be able to start from his fourth place.
“I had a different rear wing today,” Russell confirmed after the sprint, “a rear wing we probably wouldn’t have chosen to race with, but in terms of laptimes was very similar to what we would have wanted.”
