Martin Brundle DEMANDS George Russell apologises to Lewis Hamilton after controversial sprint incident

Martin Brundle

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Brundle DEMANDS Russell apologises to Hamilton after controversial sprint incident

The error cost both drivers in a big fashion and Brundle wants an apology

Joe Ellis

Saturday 29 July 2023 15:57

Martin Brundle wants George Russell to apologise to Lewis Hamilton for an incident during the sprint shootout in Belgium.

The Mercedes duo were sent out together and thought they had to rush to make the line before the chequered flag flew.

As it turned out, that was unnecessary and Hamilton was right up behind Russell starting the final flying laps.

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Russell then made an error at the top of Raidillon and not only ruined his own lap but forced Hamilton to back out of the throttle too, thwarting his.

Brundle: He should have yielded

George Russell struggled all session, only just making it out of SQ1 and SQ2

"I think he owes Lewis an apology for what happened by mugging him from around the outside starting his lap and then making a mistake in front of him," Brundle said on Sky Sports.

"He should have yielded at that point with Lewis on his tail coming out of La Source.

"It's been a scrappy weekend for George, but as we say, they always hand out prizes at the end of the race, not the beginning".

Russell: It was a total mess

“It was a total mess from start to finish," Russell said to the media. "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.

“We thought we weren’t going to make the lap as the clock was running down but there was definitely more time than we thought as Max was the last car to cross the line.

“This weekend is really not going to plan, I hope we can make a bit of a recovery in the races. Definitely confident we’ll be quicker in the races but so far single lap qualifying has been rubbish.”