Lewis Hamilton commits to Mercedes until 2025
George Russell hit out at his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Japanese Grand Prix after an early controversial overtake saw the driver move ahead of the seven-time world champion, after the pair both went off the track in order for Russell to make his way up the grid.
Hamilton made an error on lap 16 that gave Russell the opportunity to overtake him, which he did but not after forcing his team-mate to join him off the track.
Russell did not appear happy with Hamilton’s attempts to resist the overtake, sending a pointed message over the team radio: “Who do we want to fight here, each other or the others?”
The incident was noted by race stewards in Japan, but no further investigation will take place after deeming it to be fair racing between Russell and Hamilton.
Hamilton had ran wide and put Russell right on his tail, before getting overtaken after a fierce battle that the younger Brit felt was unnecessary – he was clearly of the opinion that they should save their tyres to compete with their rivals on the grid as opposed to each other and that he should have been let through.
Russell quickly found himself in second place after a number of those ahead of him opted to pit, but he swiftly moved back down in the order at a Japanese GP that neither Silver Arrows driver felt confident going into.
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Ahead of a disappointing qualifying session that saw Hamilton take to the grid in seventh, one place ahead of his fellow Mercedes star, the 38-year-old admitted that there was no chance of him winning in Japan – before Max Verstappen coasted into a strong lead on Sunday.
Both Hamilton and Russell criticised the car in qualifying, as the senior driver said: “Our car has loads of load on the front and not as much as we need on the rear. So we’re a really long way down on that and for me it’s 100 per cent clear that’s concept and we have got to make sure we change that for next year, which hopefully we will. I gave it everything I could, I was happy with my laps, they were just not that quick compared to others.”
Russell later echoed his sentiments. “It’s a fair representation of how we are on circuits like this,” Russell said after qualifying in eighth. “When there’s a big contrast of corners – high-speed and low-speed corners, we struggle to cover all aspects.”
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