MONACO — The start of the European season brought no shortage of drama last weekend, even if it all ended in a familiar result.Kimi Antonelli kept his calm through the late safety car, red flag and grid restart in Monaco to notch his fifth-straight victory, strengthening his grip on the world championship.Antonelli is now 66 points clear at the top of the driver standings, and 68 ahead of his Mercedes teammate George Russell. The Englishman endured a miserable day that ended with zero points, chiefly thanks to a team error.Russell wasn’t the only driver to get a penalty in what turned into a busy day for the stewards, who dished out sanctions both before and after the race — one sanction was challenged by Alpine in a bid to regain Pierre Gasly’s third-place finish, the outcome of which will be known today.Let’s get into the talking points from your mailbag questions.Editor’s note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.What is Mercedes’ explanation for servicing Russell immediately and not serving the penalty? How could the team have messed that up, even recognizing that he came in at the last second? — Michael S.It was a peculiar scene. Russell initially was handed a five-second penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 0.1km/h — a penalty that numerous other drivers also received. It wasn’t an end-of-world-type scenario as he still could’ve finished in the points, but what made the issue worse was that the penalty wasn’t served correctly.When Lance Stroll crashed, it triggered a safety-car period, and Mercedes opted to pit Russell and Antonelli for a double-stack. To serve a time penalty, no one can touch the car for that specific amount of time before executing the pit stop. But when Russell pulled into the pit box, the Silver Arrows conducted a normal stop, sending the Briton on his way without serving the penalty.Russell said over the radio that he’d be willing to serve the penalty on the next lap, as he had a notable gap to Gasly behind him, but the FIA stewards gave Russell a drive-through penalty for not serving the initial five-second one correctly.George Russell didn’t win any points in Monaco. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said it was the team’s mistake. “We need to look at our communication, whether we actually expected him to come in, because what I remember is about staying out and not coming in,” he continued. “But, nevertheless, you’ve got to be on it to hold him, and we didn’t.”Russell told the written media after the race that “there was a lot of confusion last minute.” He was initially going to stay out on track, he said, until the cars were directed to go into pit lane by the FIA.“Everything just happened too quick, and I guess the mechanics didn’t get the message that they had to leave the car for five seconds,” he explained.Regarding the pit-lane speeding, the 28-year-old said the team told him there was a software issue. He felt that with the “glitch,” he only “gained a tenth of a second in the whole pit lane,” but with that drive-through penalty, he “lost 13 positions.”He was running third and tumbled out of points afterwards.Madeline ColemanPenalties being decided after the race seems like a crazy idea! How is it that I still don’t know who got third? — AnonymousWhen this question was submitted, third-place finisher Isack Hadjar was subject to a post-race investigation by the stewards over a potential breach of red-flag rules by his Red Bull team. Hadjar was ultimately cleared, ensuring he could keep third.Hadjar was one of two drivers who were subject to a post-race investigation. Sergio Pérez provisionally scored Cadillac’s first point by finishing 10th, only for him to receive a 10-second time penalty for being outside of his starting box on the grid for the restart.The reason for post-race investigations such as these is that the stewards often want to take their time to make calls and fully evaluate the matter, instead of facing a time pressure. By pushing an investigation to after the race, it also allows the stewards to speak with the teams and drivers involved, something that is not possible during the race.Isack Hadjar celebrates on the podium after finishing third. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)When the stewards can make decisions in-race, they will, for the sake of timeliness. But in some cases, such as a collision between drivers that eliminated them both, it’s often better to wait and speak to the parties involved instead.Hadjar has kept third for now, at least. At the time of writing, Alpine is still pushing to try and get Gasly — who was third on the track — back on the podium after he received two five-second time penalties for pit lane speeding. Gasly was desolate speaking in the media pen after the race, believing it was an unfair sanction.Alpine has lodged what is called a right of review with the stewards.The team must put forward new and significant evidence for the case to be reassessed by the stewards. Very few teams have successfully got a ruling overturned through this process, though, given the need to bring fresh evidence that wasn’t available at the time.Luke SmithWhat’s the feeling at Red Bull around Hadjar’s performance? From the outside, it looks like he’s the closest to Max Verstappen since before Sergio Pérez suffered his dramatic drop in form in 2024. Crucially, it also feels like he’s coping with the pressure better than Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda did. — Luco O.A slightly shocking statistic coming out of Monaco was that Hadjar’s podium was the first for Red Bull by someone other than Verstappen since the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix, more than two years ago.The podium in Monaco came despite Hadjar reporting early on that he feared the engine would “explode” and experiencing a serious drop-off in pace. As others slipped up with penalties or mistakes, Hadjar kept his head, snatching the podium thanks to Gasly’s penalty.It was a big turnaround for Hadjar after he crashed exiting Swimming Pool in opening practice, which could be enough to dent a driver’s confidence. Instead, he rallied to qualify fifth, less than four-tenths of a second behind Verstappen, and then led Red Bull’s efforts after the Dutchman retired due to an issue that hit his car off the line.