MERCEDES MAKE 'SPECIAL DELIVERY' TO ASTON MARTIN AFTER FERNANDO ALONSO STRIPPED

Mercedes have made light of the controversy at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix by making a 'special delivery' to Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. The Spaniard crossed the line third in Jeddah, but was later demoted a place after receiving a time penalty for not placing his car correctly in its grid slot at the start.

Initally, he was only handed five seconds, but as confusion reigned, that was upped to 10 seconds after he was deemed to have not served the penalty properly. The development elevated George Russell into third place, but the joy proved short lived for the British driver.

Aston Martin successfully appealed the decision, after citing previous examples of driver escaping punishment for the same offence. A diplomatic Russell later took to Twitter to say: ""P4 it is then! Correct decision in the end but a shame for all the fans and everyone involved that we had all that confusion. Still a strong weekend. Let's keep it going."

For his part, prior to being reinstated Alonso had said he felt for Russell, who had seemingly been denied the chance to stand on the podium. But in Wednesday, Russell and co poked fun at the controversial saga.

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In an amusing 40 second video tweeted by the Silver Arrows, Russell is shown polishing Alonso's third placed trophy, telling a team member: "Just finished polishing this off. Can you drop it off for me?"

The trophy is then placed in the front passenger seat of a Mercedes car, with a seatbelt on it, as the driver types Aston Martin into the sat nav. The vehicle is then shown travelling through the gates of their rivals' base in Silverstone, before the driver walks through the main entrance and places it on a vacant trophy shelf.

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F1 fans were left amused, with @TodkillLyric writing: "This is amazing. Lighthearted and sporting. Extra points for good form." @SoccerDad_K added: "Very cool play!"

Mercedes will be less amused about their current struggles, with Aston Martin emerging as the main challengers to Red Bull. They head to Australia next week still searching for a first podium finish of the 2023 campaign.

2023-03-23T09:25:54Z dg43tfdfdgfd