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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was pleased with Lewis Hamilton's decision to let George Russell by during the recently-concluded F1 Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.
Hamilton has had a bumpy start to his final season with the Silver Arrows. With a DNF in Australia and a P7 in Bahrain being his best finish, the soon-to-be Ferrari driver is yet to kick his season alive in 2024.
The recent Japanese Grand Prix was a similar story for Hamilton. The Briton, who last won a race over two years ago in 2021, qualified seventh for the race in Suzuka. Despite his best qualifying performance of the season, Hamilton was too slow in the initial stages of the season, failing to muster a strong outing.
However, amidst their struggles, one notable detail that caught Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's eye was Lewis Hamilton letting his teammate George Russell go by without putting up a fight. Russell, who has clearly been the better Mercedes driver this season, went on to finish seventh, whereas Hamilton finished ninth.
Speaking to the media after the race, Wolff was delighted with Hamilton's maneuver. He said (via Mirror):
"There's an easy explanation behind it. Lewis again also we experimented on some things on his car and it looked like there was much worse degradation because of that on the front axle.
"That's why he said, 'I'm going to let him pass', because it's testing, like I say. And that was extremely fair play."
Lewis Hamilton explains giving free pass to George Russell
Speaking to Sky Sports afterwards, Hamilton explained his reasoning behind letting Russell by, stating that he was revealed experiencing significant understeer in the early stages of the race, likely due to an earlier incident with future teammate Charles Leclerc. The 39-year-old said:
"I think I picked up a bit of damage at the beginning with Charles, he came around the outside. I had huge understeer for the first stint. I couldn’t turn the car through any of the corners. That’s why I let George by."
Meanwhile, adding more to the subject, Toto Wolff stated:
"It wasn't like he was giving up a position for a podium, it was really trying to understand why wasn't he fast at that stage and that was clearly because we were doing something to the car which we wanted to try."
After four races, Lewis Hamilton has 10 points to his name. He finds himself in ninth position in the Drivers' standings. Meanwhile, his teammate George Russell sits at P7 with 24 points.
