Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had a tense moment during SQ3 at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was following Russell closely on their final hot laps, and it appeared that Russell made way for Hamilton to pass smoothly after making a mistake at La Source.
However, instead of conceding the lap, Russell continued, leading to an on-track altercation with Hamilton down the Kemmel Straight, negatively affecting both their laps.
When asked about the incident after the session, Hamilton chose not to delve into the details and dismissed the question.
“I mean, I was letting…but it doesn’t really matter,” Hamilton said in the mixed zone at Spa.
Hamilton, though, was more forthcoming about the preparation for the hot laps and was critical of the initial communication from the pit wall.
“We’re not happy about it obviously,” Hamilton commented after only managing to qualify P7 for Saturday’s sprint.
“The car was good and it was just a really fun session and it was looking great.
“I had that push lap which put me first after the first round [of hot laps in SQ3] ] and I knew I could go quicker. I think honestly, I think I would have been first or second in that session, on that last lap.
It’s just that communication was terrible. It was impossible to grasp when seven cars, or whatever it was, trundled around the last turn.
“We were led to believe that we didn’t have any more time left and so we were pushing, but in turns out we had plenty of time. And then obviously, with George…yeah, so it’s just the way it is.”
George Russell, who declared making mistakes, blamed inadequate communication for the “total mess” that was the sprint qualifying practice.
“I was surprised to actually get through to SQ3 as there were so many mistakes from my side and a bit of miscommunication about the clock finishing,” Russell analysed.
“I think we had more time on the clock than we expected. I was too close to the car in front and Lewis was too close to me. It was a bad, bad session.”
