British driver George Russell will start from the back of the grid at the Singapore Grand Prix.Russell, 28, has taken a power-unit penalty after exceeding the limit on several components of his car.The Mercedes driver dramatically retired from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend after sitting in third with just five laps to go.He had to pull over behind a safety car after an engine failure, leaving him with a mountain of work to catch teammate Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ championship.The 28-year-old Briton sits 84 points off the 20-year-old Italian, with six or seven races remaining depending on whether Formula One gets the security reassurances it needs for Qatar and Abu Dhabi, due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.Speaking ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, Russell’s boss Toto Wolff said: “George faces the added challenge of a power unit penalty in Singapore, which means he’ll have to start from the very back on Sunday following the engine failure in Malaysia.”That’s particularly frustrating given how he drove last weekend and the result he was fighting for.”Unfortunately, these things are part and parcel of the sport, and our focus now is on giving him the best possible car and the best chance to fight his way back through the field.”George Russell has been dealt a major blow ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix | GETTYThe Mercedes team principal added: “Malaysia was obviously a very difficult weekend for us. We’ve spent the days since then working hard to understand why our performance wasn’t where it should have been.”We’ve identified several areas that we need to investigate further, but Formula One offers no easy answers, and we need more evidence before we can draw any firm conclusions.”Singapore gives us an immediate opportunity to continue this work. The characteristics of the circuit are very different from other tracks, and that will help us get a clearer picture of where we stand.”That’s why we’ll be evaluating both the latest update package and our previous specification over the weekend to ensure we fully understand the direction we need to take.The British driver will start from the back of the grid in Singapore | REUTERS”We need to make the most of this final sprint weekend of the year, continue to learn and achieve the best possible result with both cars.”Singapore will be an important test of our understanding and resilience as a team.”Antonelli won the Italian Grand Prix after taking a similar penalty and extended his lead over Russell last Sunday.Kimi Antonelli leads the way in the drivers’ championship | GETTYThe youngster is on course to win his first drivers’ championship, having enjoyed many incredible victories this season.Reacting to last weekend’s race, Antonelli said: “I’m really happy with P2. It’s a result we deserved because we’ve been… Well, to be fair, after the start I thought we could have had a chance to win.”But then after the restart, you know, Max overtook me, and also George overtook me. Then I was able to regain P2, and then from that point on I was there in P2 the whole time. So yeah, that was what we deserved.”