LEWIS HAMILTON took the blame for banging into George Russell in a day of chaos in the Qatar Grand Prix.
Tensions between the Brits has been simmering all season as they struggled to take the fight to champion Max Verstappen and started squabbling among themselves.
Despondent after Mercedes produced yet another dud motor, the frustrations of this long and drawn-out F1 season are beginning to show.
The two made contact at turn one, with Russell clattering into Hamilton, who was overambitious to try to pass him around the outside.
Hamilton was out of the race and when asked if he was OK by his engineer, Hamilton said: “Yeah I got taken out by my own teammate.”
He later performed a U-turn after rewatching the start, where he took full responsibility.
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He wrote on social media: “I’ve watched the replay and it was 100 percent my fault and I take full responsibility. Apologies to my team and to George.”
Earlier, he had hinted he knew he was to blame, saying that he was happy to carry the can as the senior driver, but crucially played down any suggestion of a rift.
“It was just an unfortunate scenario,” he said. “I’m happy to take responsibility as that’s my role.
“The relationship isn’t broken. I don’t have any problems with George. We have a great relationship and we always talk about things.
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“This is definitely unfortunate and I’m sure he was frustrated in the moment, like I was. But we’ll talk about it offline and we’ll move forwards.”
Russell too initially lashed out at his teammate, saying “Come on! What the hell? Guys, come on. Two races in a row!”
He later came on the team’s radio issuing a grovelling apology himself, saying: “Lost for words, honestly. I couldn’t do anything. I was totally sandwiched.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, not in Qatar as he recovers from his knee operation, interjected telling his racer to focus on the driving.
But this collision will no doubt spark some internal squabbling and hints that perhaps the relationship is not as cordial as we are being led to believe.
The Mercedes clash was the most exciting part of this dullard in the desert, where the likes of Mo Farah and FIFA’s Gianni Infantino headed up the list of notable people.
Somewhat incredibly, this track was given the green light to host this race, despite there being no test event.
Signed off by the FIA – despite the resurfacing and installation of the controversial pyramid-shaped kerbs – which Pirelli have found to damage their tyres.
The Italian tyre maker told the FIA their concerns and after discussions it was decided that teams could not use a set of tyres for more than 18-laps, due to the fears the tyres would blow. It meant a total of at least FOUR pitstops.
It was a huge embarrassment for all parties; the circuit, the FIA and F1 – thank heavens the title was decided the previous day, because it was a total farce.
Not only were all the mandatory stops quite ridiculous – although understandable given the safety risks – the issue of track limits again raised the question, just what F1 is doing at this track, which was designed for MotoGP?
There was a succession of deleted lap times as drivers ran over white lines, which were enforced by the FIA, who dished out the penalties – much to the confusion of everyone trying to keep up.
Of course, Verstappen won – his 14th victory in 17th races – he even took the bonus point for setting the fastest lap late on.
Behind him was Oscar Piastri, who was second, and teammate Lando Norris was third as McLaren continued their excellent progress.
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Norris said: “I am happy, it was stressful, hot and sweaty, but a good job for the team.”
Russell recovered from his first lap incident with Hamilton to come home in fourth place.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
