It was a chaotic Belgian Grand Prix Sprint qualifying for George Russell and the Mercedes team, as not only did the driver fail to qualify as high as he would have liked, but he was also under investigation by the race stewards. The 27-year-old was adjudged to have been driving unnecessarily slowly during the Sprint qualifying session at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit on Friday, July 25.The British driver, who had entered the first race of the second half of the 2025 campaign with conversations clouding his future amid Mercedes' links with Max Verstappen, largely failed to put together the lap he would have desired while attempting to qualify as high up as possible for the sprint race. Russell found himself eliminated in SQ2, finishing over seven-tenths of a second off the qualifying margin.However, when it appeared the day couldn’t get any worse for George Russell, who had qualified in 13th place, an investigation was launched into him for driving unnecessarily slowly during his second sprint session. The former Williams Racing driver was, however, handed only a reprimand rather than the grid drop many had anticipated.But why was George Russell handed a reprimand instead of a penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly during the sprint qualifying session? According to documents published by the FIA, the Mercedes driver received a reprimand after he and his team explained that he had misjudged the distance from the cars in front. He believed they would allow a bigger gap back to him in the final sector, and accordingly, he reduced speed to create a gap, resulting in him exceeding the maximum time.The FIA, however, stated that it opted for a reprimand, as had been the case with its judgment in similar incidents throughout the weekend. Red Bull Racing driver Yuki Tsunoda, who coincidentally was also eliminated alongside Russell, was also given a reprimand for a similar situation.George Russell speaks about his poor sprint qualifying sessionWhile George Russell had successfully escaped a grid drop for driving during the Sprint qualifying, the British driver will be in the lower half grid for the Sprint race on Saturday. Russell weighed in on what he dubbed the possible reason behind his poor second qualifying session for the Sprint.The King's Lynn native stressed that things appeared to take a turn for the worse after he went over gravel that teammate Kimi Antonelli had pushed onto the track after spinning earlier. Russell also noted that he had suffered damage to the car after going over the gravel. Sharing his thoughts with the media following his qualifying session, he stated:“The pace was good in practice, the pace was good in Q1, but as soon as I went through that gravel, the car didn’t feel the same since. We saw some damage on the car, I’m sure that must be a factor, so not ideal. It’s only a sprint race—we hope to make some progress tomorrow.”George Russell’s outing largely summed up the Mercedes team's performance in the Belgian Grand Prix sprint. While he could only manage a 13th-place start, his teammate Antonelli qualified last after also suffering damage from a trip to the gravel while trying to put a lap together.