Mercedes faces potential punishment for failing to submit the mandatory set-up sheets for both of its cars before Kimi Antonelli and George Russell left the pitlane in Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying, with disqualification among the possible consequences.

The team was referred to the stewards by F1 technical delegate Jo Bauer on the basis that it "still had not submitted the set-up sheets" for both cars 12 minutes into the qualifying session. By this time, both drivers had been on track for some time.

This is a breach of Article 40.1 of the sporting regulations, which states that "each competitor must provide the technical delegate with a suspension set-up sheet for both of their cars before each of them leaves the pitlane for the first time during the sprint qualifying session and the qualifying session".

This is because the cars enter parc ferme conditions with the set-up locked, save for certain specific and very limited adjustments that are permitted, such as to the front wing flap, once they have taken to the track in qualifying.

The regulations do not specify an exact penalty for this, meaning that the usual range of punishments are available for stewards. This ranges from reprimands and fines to grid penalties or even exclusion from qualifying.

Such infringements are rare given it is standard procedure to submit the sheet and all teams integrate this process into their usual processes. However, in 2016 Williams was given an official reprimand for failing to submit complete set-up information before qualifying at the Australian GP.

This was a consequence of a change in Williams’s internal systems to produce the sheet for the first race of the season, with stewards saying that "the team made reasonable efforts to provide the sheet but due to a change in team document format failed to provide all required information by the deadline".

However, there's no reason to assume that any Mercedes punishment would necessarily be the same given the very different circumstances.

These will be considered by the FIA stewards, which includes ex-F1 driver Vitantonio Liuzzi, when it comes judging what, if any, penalty will be issued.

Russell had been fastest in Q1 and Q2 but ended up fourth on the provisional grid, reporting a power steering issue in Q3, while Antonelli was knocked out in Q1.

Alpine has also been summoned by the stewards for Franco Colapinto using a set of tyres that had been "electronically returned" after FP3, meaning they were not available to run in qualifying.