03 June 2023 , 17:35
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George Russell demanded internal talks as he shirked the blame for colliding with Lewis Hamilton during qualifying in Barcelona.
The Brit endured a wretched session on Saturday, leaving him with plenty of work to do to get a good result from the Spanish Grand Prix. He will be starting 12th on the grid after failing to make it through to the final part of qualifying.
But that was not all as Russell also had a run-in with Hamilton during Q2. As they approached a corner, Russell had the inside line and the DRS open as he swung to the outside of the track, forcing Hamilton onto the grass and knocking his fellow Brit's front wing endplate off.
Hamilton said over the radio that the move was "really dangerous", but Russell said he wasn't even aware that his team-mate was there. "I was starting my lap, trying to take the slipstream from Sainz and fortunate that nothing bad happened," he told the TV cameras.
It was when he then spoke with print reporters that he appeared to shift the blame onto his team. "It was just a massive miscommunication," he said. "I was looking ahead trying to get the slipstream from Carlos [Sainz] and next thing Lewis was there.
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"So we need to talk internally about how that happened, because between two team-mates, it never should. It was neither [driver's] fault. Nothing by either driver was necessarily wrong, just within the team, it shouldn't happen and the communication should be better."
Hamilton's front wing endplate was ripped off by the contact (Sky Sports)Regarding his underwhelming performance, Russell felt they had gone in the wrong direction in terms of his car setup. He added: "We made some small changes from FP3 to qualifying and the car was bouncing. The high speed corners that were easy flat in practice, I couldn't take flat, couldn't the tyres working and it all went wrong.
"Back in Q1, I knew we weren't going to have a good day, it was strange. We should be capitalising on conditions like that, we usually do – the team is very good when it is challenging. It was pretty telling the first lap in Q1 with [Nico] Hulkenberg P1, one-a-half-seconds quicker than we could achieve.
"I was trying all sorts on the out lap, all sorts of pressures, and we probably just got ourselves a bit confused. A set-up change we made into qualifying was definitely the wrong direction for these cold, damp, greasy conditions, which is a shame especially because I think we have a fast race car."