Lewis Hamilton clarifies his ‘George Russell was lucky at Jeddah’ comments

Lewis Hamilton after commenting that George Russell's advantage was a set up luck, clarifies his words now.


Lewis Hamilton clarifies his ‘George Russell was lucky at Jeddah’ comments

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Autosport)

Following George Russell‘s denial of Lewis Hamilton‘s remarks that he was lucky with the setup during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton clarified his words. At the pre-race conference in Melbourne, he said that he was impressed with the job that his teammate did over the course of the weekend.

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Russell had out-qualified Hamilton by over four-tenths of a second and finished one spot ahead of his teammate in the race. Hamilton had previously credited Russell’s advantage to the setup, but after George Russell denied it, Lewis Hamilton sought to clarify his words, stating “I want to reiterate how great a job George did on the weekend. I think people probably, from my choice of words at the weekend.”

He further added, “I think the thing I was commenting on is that there’s one specific thing that you can change in the suspension that you have to do over Friday night,” indicating that it was he who missed out on a better setup rather than his teammate being lucky. 

“And when you make that change, once you start P3, you can’t change it for the rest of the weekend, so when you make that change, you’re basically rolling the dice – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” the Mercedes man said.

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Lewis Hamilton lauds the team’s progress at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Both the Mercedes cars
Both the Mercedes cars (Credits: RacingNews 365)

Hamilton acknowledged that he had made similar changes in the past, with mixed results. “I’ve done it in the past, sometimes it hasn’t worked, sometimes it has, and it worked great for George and he did a great job.”

The seven-time world champion also noted that the setup used by Russell provided more front-end grip, which Hamilton felt would have been helpful during the race. “And the thing that I was lacking in the race was a lot of front end, which that setup gives you, so, in hindsight, that would’ve been great.”

Despite his own struggles in the race, Hamilton was pleased with the overall performance of the team, noting that “We took lots of learnings from it – I think race pace was quite decent, particularly in the second stint. And for us to move forward and get fourth and fifth place was great points for the team and a great result considering where we are in terms of performance deficit.”

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Hamilton currently holds a two-point lead over Russell in the drivers’ standings, with the two tied in race head to head and Russell heading the qualifying with 2-nil. The team is focused on closing the gap to Red Bull, who have secured two one-two finishes to start the season. With their better performance last weekend, the team will be hoping to do one better this time. 

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