Regarding the tensions with George Russell, Lewis Hamilton speaks out.

At the 2023 Japanese GP, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton engaged in a number of intriguing close calls.

George Russell has made an effort to minimize the conflicts he had with Lewis Hamilton at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, where the two almost collided.

Despite starting on the fourth row, the Mercedes teammates stayed close to one another the entire race at Suzuka.

At the chicane in the final sector during the opening laps, Russell dove up the inside of Hamilton.

Although Hamilton overtook him into Turn 1 with the help of DRS, the King’s Lynn native’s maneuver was excellent.

After that, the pair settled into the race.
However, Russell was able to retaliate when Hamilton ran wide at Turn 9.

Before the seven-time World Champion forced them both wide at Turn 14, Hamilton and Russell were side-by-side through the lengthy Turn 12.

Russell immediately voiced his displeasure, but the FIA didn’t find anything wrong with what transpired given that Hamilton held the position.

In the waning laps of the race, as Russell was having trouble keeping up, Russell and Hamilton once more came into contact.
Hamilton was using a two-stop strategy at the time.

Russell was attempting to implement a one-stop strategy, but as the race wore on, he dropped several positions.

Despite being quicker than Russell, Hamilton found it difficult to get around his teammate, which allowed Carlos Sainz to overtake him.

When Mercedes finally forced the two drivers to switch places, Hamilton was able to get away into clear air.

Sainz passed Russell, and Russell dropped to seventh as a result.

The best result he could have hoped for in terms of strategy was seventh, and Russell made sure to “take the positives” away from the race.

When asked about his battles with Hamilton, Russell told the media, including RacingNews365, “I view that as good hard racing.
The fact that we were in a position to be put under pressure and make the moves on him, I was happy with.”.

“I’ll take the good news, then.
Considering how challenging the car was to drive this weekend, the pace of the car on my side seemed especially strong.

Simple, fair racing is what it is.
It goes without saying that we wasted some time fighting, and you sound a little frustrated on the radio.
It’s just a component of racing.
“.

Russell wanted to keep providing DRS to his teammate to protect him, so Mercedes’ decision to allow Hamilton to pass Russell in the closing stages was a little contentious.

When questioned about the incident, Russell merely stated that the team has “bigger fish to fry.”.

There is nothing to discuss because we need to figure out how to increase the speed of our car, which is a bigger issue.

“We both squandered time waiting for the cars to pass us.
We won’t easily cede our positions to one another.
“.