Russell crashes out of the lead – Antonelli stretches title lead to 89 points
George Russell spun out of the Singapore Sprint and must start Sunday's race from the back after an engine change. Antonelli scored as fourth.
Archive image · Photo: Liauzh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The Singapore weekend is turning into a setback for George Russell's title bid. The Mercedes driver took the lead from Max Verstappen at the start of the wet Sprint, but touched the white line at the final corner of the opening lap, spun and hit the pit wall. The rest of the field avoided him.
Team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli took five points for fourth, extending his lead over Russell from 84 to 89 points. Russell also faces a penalty for Sunday's Grand Prix: after his engine failure in Malaysia he must use a power unit component beyond his season allocation and start from the back, as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff confirmed.
With seven races remaining, Russell expects another engine penalty before the end of the season. "That's just how the cookie crumbles," he said earlier in the week of the run of setbacks.