'Should never happen' - Mercedes’ take on "silly" Lewis Hamilton-George Russell F1 Spanish GP qualifying clash
Hamilton and Rus🌞sell dramatically collided at close to 200mph on the main straight near the end of the secon🍨d part of qualifying in Barcelona.
With both drivers starting flying laps, Hamilton looked to overtake his teammate with a huge slipstream, but Russell inadverꦛtently closed the door.
That forced Hamilton to take evasive action as he put his wheels on the grass, but the ꧃pair still m🌠ade contact which damaged the seven-time world champion’s front wing.
Hamilton was able to progress to Q3 and eventually ♊qualified fifth, while Russell was eliminated in 12th.
Hamilton and Russell get tooౠ close for comfort in qualifying
— Formula 1 (@F1)
Wolff d♋ownplayed the coming together as a “trivial incident that just looked silly” but admitted it “shouldn’t happen”.
“Team-mates should never collide and even with another c♛ar you shouldn’t collide in qualifying,” Wolff saiไd.
“It’s always unfortunate circumstances that can potentially p🔯enalise both cars.
“This is a team effort and something in our communications w🌠e need to 🃏review after that incident, to avoid it in the future.”
Hamilton, who revealed he had spoken to Russell and shaken his h📖and, explained he was expecting his teammate to pit and then thought the younger Briton was offering him a tow.
“Everyone 🎐was starting [their laps at full speed] from Turn 12, so when I came out of Turn 12 there was no one ahead,” Hamilton said.
“I got on the gas, started to pick up the pace. Came out of 13 and George looked like he was going into the pitlane and kept goinℱg and suddenly he cut 🎶back across.
“It was a bit confusing because I didn’🔯t even know he was there.
“So I was then [following] him just in case he was giving me a tow, he started moving to the right, so I was like ‘oh he’s giving me a tow’, and we🌟🔜nt to the left.
“It was a misunderstanding.”
Russell insisted he did not see Hamilton but agreed the clash was the result of a miscommun𝔉ication..
“It’s nothing that necessarily I🎃, the driver, did wrong, just within the team, it shouldn’t happen and the communication can be better given towards us,” he concluded.
Russell and Mercedes were given a "forma👍l warning" by the stewards following an investigation into the incident.
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