The Mercedes drivers made dramatic contact at Turn 1 of last weekend’s F1 Qatar Grand Prix, 𒐪which ended H꧋amilton’s race early.

He later took responsibility for the incident, and ꦺthe drivers parted ways 𝔉on good terms.

reporter Kravitz said from the paddock post-race: “The frustrating thing is, as well as being completely unnecessary - had they given each other a bit of room, it wouldn’t have happened - as well as being frustrating because the car had pace, as well as Mercedes believin𒆙g they would have been quicker than McLaren, and it would have been a double podium, it wouldn’t have been Lando and Oscar, it would’ve been George and Lewis on the podium.

“As well as throwing away a double poꦚdium behind Max Verstappen, they had talked about the fact that Lewis was starting on the soft tyre, 𝐆the quicker tyre, off the line and might be quicker than George into the first corner.

“They talked about it in the Merced🌺es briefing in the morning. How avoidable was al🎃l of this, I want to know?

ꦛ“Bradley Lord said ‘we discussed it’. If you discussed it, maybe George would’ve thought ‘Lewis will be in, 💖in a couple of laps’. It’s not George’s fault. 

“Or Lewis thinking: ‘I’m ahead of George, he ไknows I’m on the soft tyre, maybe I’ll make it extra, extra special safe, then take a wider line into Turn 1’.

“It adds to the frustrationﷺ. Especially, as George and Lewis underlined, everyone has put in a real shift at Mercedes,꧟ putting in the late hours.”

R𒁃ussell ultimately finished fourth behind Max Ve💝rstappen and the two McLarens.

Lord, the stand-in for Me🦄rcedes’ absent team principal Toto Wolff, reacted after the race: “We discussed it in the morning, it was a scenario that we’d been through.

“Obviously they had different sta🐼rt tyre performance. In the moment, they just ran out of space. George had nowhere to go, Lewis tried to take🍸 his line. 

“We saw what happened. Unfortunately these things can happen. You can’t programme everyone even with a discussio🌠n beforehand.”