George Russell points blame for major Monaco punishment: 'I am beyond frustrated'

George Russell has blamed an initial "software issue" for his Monaco GP pit-lane speeding penalty, which saw his race spiral. 

Russell was bottled up behind the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar in the opening stages of the grand prix, but passed the RB22 after undercutting with an earlier pit-stop. 

However, he was pinged for speeding in the pit-lane, one of a number of drivers to be hit with penalties, including Pierre Gasly who lost third place on the road and Lewis Hamilton, who finished second. 

Russell was not planning to stop again, but after the late crash of Lance Stroll deployed the safety car, Russell pitted, but did not serve his five-second penalty.

He offered to do so on the next lap, but as per the rules, he did not serve the penalty correctly as Mercedes worked on the car before five seconds had elapsed, meaning he was handed the customary drive-through penalty. 

However, as the race was red-flagged when this penalty was communicated, it meant he fell to 13th at the flag after the restart, with team-mate Kimi Antonelli winning a fifth straight grand prix.

Russell is now 68 points behind Antonelli in the drivers' standings after a second successive non-score following his DNF in Canada, with Hamilton even leapfrogging Russell into second place.

Reflecting, Russell explained that a software glitch was to blame. 

"I am beyond frustrated now, and just struggling to comprehend how the season is panning out," he told media, including RacingNews365.

"The team said there was nothing I did wrong with the speeding in the pit-lane, it was a software issue, and it was not ideal, but not the end of the world, and then obviously the drive-through for not serving it correctly. 

"I got the drive-through because there was a lot of confusion at the last minute.

"I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA called all the cars through the pit-lane, and I asked the team: 'Am I stopping?', but I didn't get an answer, but I saw my tyres there and everything happened so quickly.

"I guess I didn't get the message that I had to stop for five seconds, and then I was on the radio saying: 'I am willing to serve the penalty on the next lap' as 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 is a drive-through. 

"Probably with the software glitch, I gained one-tenth of a second in the whole pit-lane, and lost 13 positions."