‘Could have been first’ – Lewis Hamilton fumes over incident with George Russell

Qualifying for Saturday’s Sprint Race in Belgium was a difficult one for all drivers with conditions constantly changing following heavy rain at Spa-Francorchamps.

Max Verstappen pipped Oscar Piastri to pole but there was disappointment for the Mercedes duo as Hamilton and Russell qualified seventh and tenth.

The former was particularly disappointed as he felt 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,’ the 38-year-old 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.

‘We thought we didn’t have any more time left which was why we were pushing but it turns out we had plenty of time. With George…it’s the way it is. It doesn’t really matter.

‘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.’

Russell was even more frustrated, with the 25-year-old struggling for pace so far this weekend, adding: ‘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.

‘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.’

The Sprint race will begin at 4:05pm BST on Saturday.

MORE : ‘F***!’ – Rookie Oscar Piastri disappointed despite front row start for Belgium Sprint

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