Russell's Bahrain GP podium in doubt over DRS infringement

George Russell's second-place finish in Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix is in doubt with a stewards investigation into a potential DRS infringement.

Russell undid the damage of the one-place grid penalty Mercedes earned for a pitlane error during a red flag in Q2 by moving ahead of Charles Leclerc at the start and proceeding to claim second in the Bahrain GP.

He crossed the line just ahead of a charging Lando Norris, but he has to face the stewards after the grand prix for opening his DRS when he wasn't allowed to - having been a long way adrift of race leader Oscar Piastri when the incident took place.

“We were having all sorts of failures and basically had an override on the DRS, on one lap I clicked the radio button, and the DRS opened,” Russell explained after the race.

“So straight away I closed it again, backed off, nothing gained. I lost more than I gained.

“It was only open for a split second, so kind of goes to show the amount of issues we were having.”

Russell also reported gearshift issues on the radio and even his transponder failing caused havoc with F1’s broadcast timing tower.

He wasn't the only driver reporting issues, with Norris also manually opening the DRS only when race engineer Will Joseph told him to.

Russell will face the stewards 45 minutes after the podium ceremony for an alleged breach of Article 22.1 h) of the sporting regulations, regarding "alleged usage of the DRS system outside the pre-defined activation zones".