Lewis Hamilton dealt George Russell 'massive hit' to F1 title hopes

A blended image of Hamilton looking grateful in Ferrari kit and Russell looking surprised in a Mercedes hoodie — Photo: © IMAGO

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Lewis Hamilton dealt George Russell 'massive hit' to F1 title hopes

Hamilton has given Russell quite the challenge

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 22 July 2026 19:56

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Mercedes F1 star George Russell heads to this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix with a lot of ground to make up in the championship.

And Sky Sports F1 legend Martin Brundle feels the Brit has former team-mate and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to thank for that.

At last weekend's race in Spa, Russell struggled with the boost on his Mercedes, something which was especially evident at the start of the race when he got swallowed up by the frontrunners.

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This meant the 28-year-old then found himself fighting for track position with Hamilton, an interaction which ended with Russell in the gravel and found the Ferrari star slapped with a five-second penalty from the FIA stewards.

But the kicker is that even after serving his penalty and almost getting another one for knocking over one of his mechanics in the pits, the 41-year-old still managed to cross the line in P4, allowing him to leapfrog Russell in the drivers' standings.

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Brundle breaks down impact of Hamilton-Russell crash

Russell was ruled out of last weekend's Belgian GP on the opening lap thanks to the collision with Hamilton, something which means his previous gap of 25 points to championship leader and team-mate Kimi Antonelli has now doubled.

Taking a closer look at the incident and giving his opinion on the fallout of it for Sky Sports F1, Brundle assessed what the crash means for Russell and his title hopes which appear to be slowly slipping away.

"George Russell is clearly not a direct descendant of the Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison or Nikola Tesla families because he never seems to have the right battery power at the moment," joked Brundle.

"Whether that is missing straight-line speed compared to his team-mate Antonelli in qualifying, for whatever mystery reasons, or climbing the hill to turn five on the opening lap.

"Antonelli got away well at the start and Verstappen's Red Bull launched unusually nicely too.

"But Max appeared to pull a cunning move by powering past before Eau Rouge at the bottom of the hill, but his post-race comments say that his car had too much battery deployment suggesting he had nothing to do with that cunning plan…

"Both Mercedes of Antonelli and Russell started the race with less battery charge than needed, and it particularly hurt Russell on the long climb to the critical turn five braking point, and he was mugged by three cars including Lewis Hamilton.

"George braked impressively late trying to make up for his poor arrival speed and was on the outside of Lewis, leaving racing room.

"Lewis, close behind Max, slid a little wide and contacted George who spun into retirement, and at the same time taking a massive hit to his championship comeback chances."

F1 2026 drivers' standings ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix

Pos	Driver	Team	Points
1	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	204
2	Lewis Hamilton	Scuderia Ferrari HP	159
3	George Russell	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	154
4	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari HP	126
5	Lando Norris	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	103
6	Oscar Piastri	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	92
7	Max Verstappen	Oracle Red Bull Racing	91
8	Isack Hadjar	Oracle Red Bull Racing	60
9	Pierre Gasly	BWT Alpine F1 Team	42
10	Liam Lawson	Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team	39
11	Arvid Lindblad	Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team	22
12	Franco Colapinto	BWT Alpine F1 Team	19
13	Oliver Bearman	TGR Haas F1 Team	18
14	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi Revolut F1 Team	10
15	Carlos Sainz	Atlassian Williams F1 Team	6
16	Alex Albon	Atlassian Williams F1 Team	5
17	Esteban Ocon	TGR Haas F1 Team	3
18	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	1
19	Sergio Perez	Cadillac F1 Team	0
20	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi Revolut F1 Team	0
21	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac F1 Team	0
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	0

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes George Russell Martin Brundle