July 29th 2023.
Sir Lewis Hamilton was left fuming with his Mercedes teammate George Russell after qualifying for Saturday's Sprint Race in Belgium. Heavy rain at Spa-Francorchamps made the session difficult for all drivers with Max Verstappen pipping Oscar Piastri to pole and Hamilton and Russell coming in seventh and tenth respectively.
The 38-year-old believed he had the pace to be right at the front, having gone top of the time sheets on his penultimate run. However, his final lap was disrupted by traffic at the last corner and more notably by Russell who ran wide at the first corner and came back onto the track just ahead of Hamilton.
The pair ran very close together in the run up to and including the Eau Rouge and Raidillon turns, before Hamilton was forced to slow down in order to avoid colliding with his teammate as they went onto the Kemmel straight.
"We're not happy about it, obviously," Hamilton told Sky Sports. "It was a really fun session and it was looking great at the end. I had that lap which put me first for the first lap that I'd done and I knew I could go quicker. I reckon I could have been first or second on that last lap. Communication was pretty poor, it was difficult to understand – we got to the last corner and there were seven cars trundling around."
The Mercedes duo were not pleased with the outcome of the session, with Russell even more frustrated than Hamilton. The 25-year-old has been struggling for pace this whole weekend and said, "It was a total mess from start to finish. Surprised I got into SQ3 as so many mistakes from my side and then miscommunication at the end. We were stressing about the clock finishing and I think we had more time on the clock than we expected. I was too close to the car in front, Lewis was too close to me. Bad, bad session."
Hamilton was still looking on the bright side though, claiming he was confident of a better performance in the race. "I feel great in the car in all conditions, we're a bit slower than the Red Bulls but none of us have driven on the heavier fuel so I'm excited," he said.
The Sprint race will begin at 4:05pm BST on Saturday, and Hamilton and Russell will be looking to make amends for their disappointing qualifying session.
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