“I wasn’t aware he was there” - George Russell explains collision with Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton looke💫d to overtake his teammate on the run to Q1 after Russell was driving slowly out of the final corner.
The seven-time world champion was fo🔯rced onto the grass, picking up front ✨wing damage in the process.
“George just backed off,” Hamilton said over team radio after the incident. “That’s really dangerous. I might ha🤪ve some damage on the car.”
Russell told Mercedes: “You didn’t tell me there was a car behind.🥃 I’m sorry guys.”
Speaking to Sky after qualifying🧔, Russell put it down to a miscommunication.
"Yeah pretty much [a miscommunica🔯tion],” he said. “I wasn’t even aware he was there. I was starting my lap, trying to take the slipstream from Sainz and fortun🎶ate that nothing bad happened.”
It was ultimately a disastrous d༒ay for Russell, who was knocked ꦑout in Q2.
Explaining what went wrong in Barce💯lona, he said: "Everything to be honest. I am not too sure why. Straight out of the box in run one, I just had no grip from the tyres, really struggli💮ng.
“The car started to bounce a lot in the high-speed corners so I couldn’t take corners flat-out when I was✱ do🍒ing so this morning. A really odd session. Not surprised to be out in Q2 because the car was totally off the pace. I didn’t have a good feeling with it. Disappointing for sure.”
Russell wasn’t sure overnight setu💎p changes were to blame for his lack of perfo🃏rmance.
“We did change some thingsꦇ but nothing we would have expected to have such a substantial effect,” he added. “Maybe one thing I can contribute towards the lack of performance. It was tricky for everyone out there.🎶
“There were cars struggling left, right and centr♑e but we shouldn’t be in this position. It’s a bit of a shame.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s c🦂ontroversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
