Russell to start from back of Singapore Grand Prix grid after power-unit penalty

George Russell will start from the back of the grid in Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix, BBC Sport reported. The Mercedes driver has received a power-unit penalty, according to the report. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff confirmed that Russell needs to take a new power unit this weekend.

BBC Sport reported that the change puts Russell over the limit on several components, meaning he will be penalised in Singapore. Wolff said the penalty is "particularly frustrating given the way he drove last weekend and the result he deserved to be fighting for." Wolff added: "Unfortunately, these things are part of the sport and our focus now is on giving him the best possible car and opportunities to fight back through the field."

Russell qualified eighth for last Sunday's race and was heading for a podium finish before an engine failure forced him to retire from third place with five laps remaining, BBC Sport reported. The BBC described the race as the Bahrain Grand Prix, in Malaysia. Mercedes had no choice but to fit a new engine because Russell had no usable engines remaining in his allocation, the report said; after early-season reliability problems, they were all either broken or too high on mileage.

Kimi Antonelli finished second behind Max Verstappen in that race, according to BBC Sport. The Italian is now 84 points ahead of his Mercedes team-mate. The report said six or seven races remain, depending on whether Formula 1 gets the security reassurances it needs for Qatar and Abu Dhabi, in the context of the war in the Middle East.

The penalty applies to Sunday's Grand Prix and not Saturday's sprint race, BBC Sport reported. Singapore hosts the sixth and final sprint event of the season, with extra points on offer. Wolff said: "We have spent the days since [last Sunday] working hard to understand why our performance was not where it should have been." He added that Singapore gives the team an immediate opportunity to continue that work and that it needs to "score the strongest result we can with both cars."

Russell has three wins and eight podium finishes this season, according to BBC Sport, and won last year's Singapore Grand Prix. The report said his title hopes are already effectively over, even if he still has a mathematical chance of catching Antonelli.