2023-10-08 19:53:20
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton collided at the first corner of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.
The two Mercedes of Britons George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who started in second and third positions, collided at the first corner of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, causing Hamilton to retire and the safety car to be deployed. As the seven-time world champion tried to pass around the outside, Russell found himself trapped between his teammate and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) who had taken the rope and hit Hamilton’s right rear wheel. The two Silver Arrows then went head to tail. Hamilton appeared very annoyed on the radio. When his engineer asked him if he was okay, he replied tersely: “I was taken out by my own teammate…»
Russell was able to restart but fell back to 18th after a pit stop. However, he quickly climbed back into the Top 10 at the cost of several overtakes and after several competitors took advantage of the safety car to also stop in the pits. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking back, I was focused on what was happening in front of me and he appeared out of nowhere“, he told his team on the radio.
Bad operation
This abandonment is a hard blow for Hamilton, who is seeking second place in the drivers’ standings behind Verstappen, crowned world champion on Saturday. Before the race, he was 29 points behind Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and had a good opportunity to reduce the gap since the Mexican started from the pit lane in last position. It is also a bad operation for Mercedes, which sees its second place in the constructors’ standings threatened by Ferrari, which is 20 lengths behind. The last minute withdrawal of one of the Scuderia drivers, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr, due to a fuel supply problem on his car, offered the German team the possibility of widening the gap. gap Sunday.
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