George Russell blasted by Le Mans winner for Lewis Hamilton clash: "Everything he says is complete rubbish"

George Russell faced severe criticism from Le Mans winner Richard Bradley for his clash with Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona.

During the qualifying session in Barcelona, both drivers ended up clashing at the end of the main straight. Looking at the incident, it did appear that Russell was trying to take the slipstream from the Ferrari in front of him for his push lap.

The accident did cost George Russell as the Mercedes driver was unable to complete his final push lap. Lewis Hamilton also ended up incurring some damage to his car as well and that did possibly hamper his Q3 lap.

While both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton dismissed the clash as a miscommunication, Richard Bradley was furious with the actions of the young driver. Claiming that the collision was intentional, Bradley said on the On Track GP podcast,

"What happened in qualifying with Lewis was just unforgivable. Unforgivable. See, there is absolutely no way that he wouldn’t have checked his mirrors before he started that lap. You always, always have a check before you’re starting your push lap, and he knew exactly where Lewis was."

Bradley doubled down on his claim and even questioned why George Russell was not handed any penalty or repercussions for the incident. He said,

“Everything he says is complete rubbish. He knew exactly what he was doing. I’m amazed he wasn’t handed his P45 on the spot for that. That could have been like an aircraft crash.”

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George Russell claims he wasn't even aware that Lewis Hamilton was behind him

Talking about the incident, Russell revealed that he wasn't even aware that Lewis Hamilton was right behind him. Talking to the media after qualifying, the Mercedes driver had claimed that he did not expect his teammate to be right behind him and didn't see his mirrors either. He said,

“I mean, I wasn’t even aware [Hamilton] was there. I was starting my lap, trying to steal a slipstream from [Carlos] Sainz and fortunately nothing bad happened.”

Fortunately for the team and the drivers, it didn't matter on Sunday during the race as both the drivers were able to make their way through the field and finish the race in P2 and P3. Russell started the race outside of the top 10 and drove a marvelous race that saw him finish in P3. While Lewis Hamilton systematically made his way past Carlos Sainz to secure P2 in the race.