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Lewis Hamilton's former teammate Nico Rosberg feels that the Mercedes driver needs to apologize to teammate George Russell for the clash in the 2023 F1 Spanish GP qualifying.
In the dying stages of Q2, both Russell and Lewis were about to start their last laps. At that stage, George Russell was already in the drop zone while Lewis Hamilton was looking to do a better lap to keep himself safe. While George started his lap out of turn 14, Lewis, who was right behind got behind his teammate and tried to take advantage of the tow from the car upfront.
George Russell, unaware that Lewis Hamilton behind him was going to make a move over him moved to the left and ended up damaging both the cars. For the incident, Russell apologized immediately for the incident claiming he did not see Lewis behind him.
However, in all of this, Nico Rosberg feels Lewis Hamilton should also apologize for the clash. During the Sky Sports broadcast, Rosberg said:
"George apologised which I think is right but I think Lewis also needs to apologise because if Lewis goes through, George's lap is done. Lewis would be right in front and George would be stuck behind him and his lap will be ruined. It was his last try to get into Q3, so Lewis needs to apologise later on."
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's comments about the incidents
Talking about the incident, Russell told Sky Sports that he wasn't even aware that Lewis was there. The Mercedes driver said that he was starting his lap and trying to catch the slipstream from Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari. He said:
"I wasn't even aware he was there. I was starting my lap, trying to take the slipstream from Sainz. Fortunately, nothing bad happened."
Lewis put the whole thing down to a miscommunication. Talking about how the car behaved after the clash, the Mercedes driver said that it didn't feel too different:
"The car didn't feel massively different. Afterwards the car was pulling to the right. It was just a miscommunication thing. On the [final] lap it was alright."
Lewis Hamilton will start the 2023 F1 Spanish GP from the second row (P4) after Pierre Gasly's 6-place grid penalty. For teammate George Russell though, things are going to be a bit tougher as the Mercedes driver will start the race outside of the top 10 (P12) after getting eliminated in Q2.
