Lewis Hamilton is adamant his relationship with Mercedes team-mate George Russell is “not broken” despite their crash at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix.
On a set of grippier new soft tyres, compared to the used mediums deployed by both second-on-the-grid Russell and polesitter Max Verstappen in his Red Bull, Hamilton attempted a bold move around the outside of the duo into the first corner.
But a misjudgment from the seven-time F1 champion as he attempted to take more of a racing line through Turn 1 saw him leave Russell with no room, resulting in a collision that sent Hamilton spinning into the gravel and out of the race.
Russell managed to at least limp back to the garage for a new front wing and a set of new hard tyres before going on to claim a superb fourth behind race-winner Verstappen and McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Hamilton made his initial displeasure clear over the team radio but on reflection after the event, adopted a more conciliatory tone.
“In the heat of the moment, I felt totally frustrated because I felt this tap from the rear end,” said Hamilton. “But I don’t think George had anywhere to go. It was just an unfortunate scenario.
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“I’m happy to take responsibility because that’s my role (as the senior member of the team). I need to go back and look at it, but I don’t feel like it was George’s fault.
“It’s frustrating it’s my team-mate I touched, but ultimately it’s frustrating because both of us spun out and went down the order.”
Suggested to Hamilton that his relationship with Russell may now be difficult to mend, he replied: “The relationship isn’t broken.
“I don’t have any problems with George, we have a great relationship, we work and we always talk about things.
“This is definitely unfortunate, and I’m sure he was frustrated in the moment, as I was.
“We’ll talk about it offline, and then we’ll move forward. Just apologies to all the team.”
Given the fact Hamilton and Russell were on offsetting rubber, and therefore different strategies, there is an argument to suggest Russell could have backed out to give the 38-year-old a run at Verstappen.
“We knew we had different tyres,” said Hamilton. “He was like ‘Let’s just work together’. So we talked about working together.
“Again, it was not our plan to come together. Just really gutting for the team because we all work so hard to be in that position, and I just feel really sad for everybody, for my part in it.”
Conversely, Hamilton’s move around the outside appeared to be a risky one so soon into the race, despite being on the quicker tyre at the start.
“I had the soft tyre and everyone around me had the medium tyre and I needed to get by,” remarked Hamilton. “So I tried to go around the outside of Max, but it just didn’t work out.”
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