Hamilton twice battled wheel-to-wheel with Mercedes teammate Russell on his way to finishing fifth at Suzuka, while the younger Briton came home seventh after 💙gambling on the alternative one-stop strategy. 

The pair nea༒rly collided during a duel that saw b꧅oth run wide at Spoon, prompting a fiesty radio message from Russell, who asked “are we fighting each other or the others?”. 

In the closing stages, Mercedes instructed Russell to move aside for Hamilton, who was charging through the field on fresher tyres, leaving the former 🍬unhappy. 

“If you want to play the tꦺeam game… he pushed me off the track earlier,” a frustrated🍬 Russell said on the radio. 

S💜peaking after the race, ex-F1 driver Chandhok noted clear tension between the Meℱrcedes duo. 

“He [Hamilton] is 75 points ahead of George. He was quite🤪 quick to point that out!” Chandhok told Sky𝔉.

“There was needle with George. There is a little bit 💝of needle between the two drivers.” 

O✃n Russell’s strategy, Chandhok said: “He didn’t have too much to lose at that point. 

“If he did the two-stop which ev🦋eryone else did, he would have ended up in the same place. 

“He was ahead of Alonso, th🦄ey tried a gamble, he ended up ahead of Alonso. It was worth a punt, they finished seventh which is where they would have been anyway.” 

1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill said of Russell: “He’s smarting.🔥 Don’t forget what happened in Singapore, he dropped a load of points the༒re. 

“He can see🌳 Lewis has gone way ahead in the driver’s ch๊ampionship. He wants a good result. 

“Two-stop, one-stop, he💖 probably would have ended with the same result, and he has to suck that up.”