Stewards reveal verdict in Russell-Piastri Japan investigation

Mercedes has been fined €5,000 for an unsafe release involving George Russell and Oscar Piastri in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying.

In Q1, Mercedes released Russell from his garage, but in doing so, Piastri was forced to take avoiding action in his McLaren to prevent a collision.

In their investigation, the stewards found that the mechanic who released Russell did not check to see if the pit-lane was clear before releasing the #63.

Russell stated that his intention was to continue along the working lane before morphing into the fast lane, but had to steer into the fast lane to avoid hitting a mechanic from team-mate Lewis Hamilton's car.

The stewards determined that it "is still the responsibility of the team to release the car in a safe manner and good practice would dictate that prior to the car being released, the pit lanes (both fast and working) should be checked for approaching vehicles."

Piastri qualified sixth fastest with Russell down in ninth.

For the verdict into the incident between the two that happened in the race, click here.