SAKHIR, Bahrain -- George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were each handed a one-place grid drop at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, hours after qualifying second and fourth.
Both drivers were penalised after Mercedes sent them out into the fast lane in the pits before qualifying resumed after a red flag stoppage, something prohibited in the regulations on safety grounds.
The verdict lifts Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to second on the grid, and Pierre Gasly to fourth in the Alpine.
Qualifying had been red-flagged after Esteban Ocon crashed his Haas in Q2.
Mercedes later explained it had misread the FIA's "estimated restart time" as the actual restart time.
Speaking after qualifying, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had hoped the drivers would not bare the brunt of the breach.
"There's no precedent," Wolff told Sky Sports. "It's a new rule in that sense, and we're going to see what the stewards say. I would hope that it's not the drivers who are penalised for it. It was our mistake that we jumped the gun."
In their post-qualifying meeting with the stewards, Mercedes representative Andrew Shovlin did argue that the team had simply misread the session restart time and insisted that no sporting advantage had been gained in doing so.
In reply to that, the stewards "stated that such a move could be a sporting advantage in that it could enable a team to perform its run plan whereas other teams may not be able to."
The stewards did "accept that the breach was unintentional and a genuine mistake by the team" but said a sporting penalty had to be implemented to ensure teams do not simply start sending their cars out as soon as the estimated re-start time was established by the FIA.
The verdict added that "a similar breach in different circumstances, could entail a more severe sporting penalty, in future."
New Bahrain GP grid, top 10
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
George Russell, Mercedes
Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Lando Norris, McLaren
Max Verstappen, Red Bull
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull