George Russell handed second stewards' verdict after 'sun haze' excuse

George Russell has been handed a warning by the Australian Grand Prix stewards following an infringement for which he attempted to use "sun haze" as an excuse. 

Mercedes driver Russell was called to the stewards for a second time after also being involved in an incident with rookie Arvid Lindblad, for which he earned a reprimand.

The Briton failed to follow the notes of race director Rui Marques and took a practice start outside the allocated area, earning the warning.

A stewards' statement read: "The driver admitted that he performed a practice start outside the designated practice start area defined in Item 14.1 of the Race Director’s Competition Notes.

"However, he explained that, due to sun haze, he was unable to clearly see the grid boxes and believed that the correct location was where the rubber marks were visible on the asphalt.

"Having viewed the driver’s onboard and CCTV footage, we accept that the sighting of the grid box was difficult given the light conditions.

"But the driver was so far forward from the designated location that it was ahead of the protection of the pit wall, and this incident occurred after the race director had warned all teams of the need to comply with his instructions in this regard.

"The stewards determined that the driver failed to follow the race director’s instructions and impose a penalty consistent with the penalty for similar breaches in the past."