Lewis Hamilton and George Russell faced off for the first time as Mercedes teammates at Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix; Hamilton says he was 100 percent responsible for the collision; F1 returns with the United States GP – live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22
Last updated: 09/10/23 11:23 a.m.
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It looks like all is well between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, after the two Mercedes hugged each other following their collision at the Qatar GP.
It looks like all is well between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, after the two Mercedes hugged each other following their collision at the Qatar GP.
Lewis Hamilton insists he has a “great relationship” with George Russell after the pair collided spectacularly on the first lap of the Qatar Grand Prix.
Hamilton accepted responsibility for the crash after flying around the outside before the first corner in an attempt to pass Russell and Max Verstappen.
The Mercedes duo made wheel-to-wheel contact, which sent Hamilton out of the race and initially left Russell at the back, but he pushed through the field and finished fourth.
The incident followed a lively end to the Singapore Grand Prix, when the two Mercedes clashed in a four-way fight for the lead, and they came close to coming to blows at Suzuka a week later as well.
Hamilton and Russell have both signed new contracts to stay with Mercedes until the end of 2025.
“I think we are a great team. George and I always have a great relationship. We will discuss and work,” Hamilton told Sky Italy.
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Lewis Hamilton insists he still has a ‘great’ relationship with teammate George Russell, despite their recent on-track brawls
“I’m happy to take responsibility as an older guy. I don’t think George had anywhere to go at that point.
“I was trying to get ahead of them both and it was an unfortunate situation. I had the worst tire of everyone around me, so I had to try to get ahead. Big risk, big penalty.”
He added to reporters: “The relationship is not broken. I have no problems with George, we have a great relationship, we work and we always talk about things.
“So it’s really unfortunate and I’m sure he was frustrated at the time like me. But we’ll talk about it offline and we’ll move forward. Like I said, I apologize to the whole team. “
Did Hamilton and Russell discuss the first lap before the race?
Hamilton started on soft tires and was on the cleaner side of the grid, while Mercedes put Russell on the mediums and he was on the dirtier part of the track.
It is likely that Hamilton will still get a better run down to the first corner and can be more aggressive on the soft tires, as drivers have more grip and confidence on softer tires on the first lap.
It was a scenario both drivers had discussed during the pre-race briefing, but that didn’t stop the two Mercedes having their first collision together.
“Before the race we knew we had different tires, so he (Russell) said to us ‘let’s work together today’,” Hamilton said.
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Lewis Hamilton says he takes responsibility for the collision with his teammate, while George Russell insists they will overcome the incident.
“So we were just talking about working together. It wasn’t our plan to get together. It’s just really exhausting for the team. We all worked so hard to be in this position and I felt really sad for everyone. world for my part. in.”
Mercedes communications director Bradley Lord said Sky Sports F1: “We discussed it in the morning. It was a scenario that we had experienced and different starting tire performance and things like that.”
“Then at that point they all ran out of space. George obviously had nowhere to go, Lewis tried to follow his line and we saw what happened.
“Unfortunately, these things can happen and you can’t schedule everything, even with prior discussion. We’ll talk about it afterwards, as we do, and we’ll go over it and learn what we can so it doesn’t happen again never, hopefully.”
Carlos Sainz’s failure to start, due to a fuel system problem, allowed Russell to take fourth place from Charles Leclerc’s fifth and allow Mercedes to increase their lead to 28 points over Ferrari in the battle for second place in the constructors’ championship.
Russell says his goal is to help the team in this battle and Lord believes the team did its best in the race following the collision.
“On the first lap with George at the back and Lewis in the gravel, things didn’t look bright at all. Turning the tables with George in P4 and beating Ferrari one afternoon was not something that we could have hoped once we were a. race lap,” Lord said.
“It’s clear to see what could have been. We were on the pace of the McLarens, probably not within reach of Max, but there is a double podium that could have been done today.”
“The ifs, buts and maybes don’t really matter in this sport, so we’ll take what we have and be happy with it, but it could have been so much more.”
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