Russell faces grid penalty as title hopes collapse

George Russell’s fading world championship hopes have suffered another major blow, with the Mercedes driver now expected to start Sunday’s Singapore GP from the back of the grid.

According to Sky, Russell will need a new power unit following the failure that ended his race at Sepang while running third.

The retirement allowed teammate Kimi Antonelli to extend his championship lead to 84 points with just seven rounds remaining.

Russell has already used his permitted allocation of four power units, meaning another change will trigger a grid penalty at one of Formula 1’s most difficult circuits for overtaking.

However, there could be one consolation.

Mercedes had been planning to introduce an upgraded power unit under the FIA’s ADUO system at Austin later this month, but Sky reports the team could now bring it forward for Russell at Singapore.

That would potentially avoid a further penalty later in the season.

Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord confirmed the Sepang failure was mechanical, although the precise cause remains under investigation.

"Our investigation so far, we’ve got the car back, we’ve been able to do a first inspection, it’s clearly a mechanical failure on the power unit side."

"Exactly what the root cause is we still need to determine, but the consequence was clear for all to see."

The setback comes as Mercedes is also investigating why its major aerodynamic upgrade introduced at Sepang apparently made the W17 slower.

Lord said the combination of new components, extreme temperatures and the abrasive track surface had produced unexpected handling problems.

"That’s not an easy thing to unpick," he said.

"It’s a bit of a 3D problem that we need to work through."

Meanwhile, Ralf Schumacher believes Mercedes must now accept that Russell’s championship challenge is effectively finished and concentrate on protecting Antonelli’s lead.

"Practically speaking, now that they also have a problem with pace, they have to do everything they can to help Kimi as well," he told Sky Deutschland.

"They have to think as a team and get both of them home in the championship. That means the internal fight is now almost impossible, unless they have a weekend like in Baku, where George was much faster."