George Russell claims the dramatic collision with Lewis Hamilton cost Mercedes a chance to fight Max Verstappen
George Russell was able claw his way back to the top and finish P4.
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George Russell, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (Via IMAGO)
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton collided with each other at Turn One at the first lap of the Qatar GP. This led to Hamilton-DNF from the race initially and led Russell to spin out, falling to 18th position after the crash.
The racers were quick to respond to the crash on the team radio, where Hamilton said that he got ‘taken out’ by his teammate, and Russell replied to his race engineer that he had nowhere to go and was ‘sandwiched’ in between the two racers (Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton). However, Russell felt that due to this incident, he lost out on a winning opportunity.
Russell, during a post-race interview, claimed that he could’ve potentially gone on to challenge Max Verstappen for the win if not for the collision. He also pointed out how Oscar Piastri could finish within five seconds of Verstappen, who took the lead following the crash.
Talking about the race, as reported by racefans.net, Russell said, “We believe that we were on pace or, if not, faster than McLaren,” claiming he could’ve given a competition to Verstappen. He also added, “And seeing that Piastri finished so close to Max was really quite surprising.” He later said that he was ‘frustrated’ by the collision with his teammate. “It was just a big missed opportunity for both of us.”
Lewis Hamilton insists the relationship with George Russell isn’t broken
Both the racers cleared the situation shortly after the incident, with Russell apologizing and claiming he had nowhere to go. Hamilton took full responsibility for the incident and apologized to the team and Russell.
However, Hamilton assured that the duo would move forward from this incident and assured that the relationship between both the racers remains unchanged; he said, “The relationship isn’t broken, I don’t have any problems with George.”
Since the team Boss, Toto Wolff, was absent due to his recovery from Knee Surgery, the team’s head of communications, Bradley Lord, addressed the media on Sunday night. He claimed that they had talked about the scenarios at the first corner in the same morning meeting and added, “Obviously what happened was not part of the plan.”
Both the drivers were magnanimous after the race and made peace with each other. Lord said how the feature of the season has been both the drivers working so well with each other and how they bounced back from a difficult season.
In case you missed it:
- WATCH: “Sorry about that,” Lewis Hamilton and George Russell hugged out the drama over collision at Qatar GP
- FIFA President Gianni SPOTTED with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali at the Qatar Grand Prix
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