Hamilton and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell dramatically collided while battling for position on the opening lap of Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, leaving the seven-time world champion stricken iꩵn the🐬 gravel. 

Having made a fast start on soft tyres, Hamilton swooped around the outside and attempted to overtake both Russell and168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Max Verstappen, who had started on the medium compound. 

But with Russell sandwiched between Hamilton 🎃and Verstappen with nowhere to go, the two Mercedes made contact. 

Russell recovered to salvage fourth place while Hamilton accepted responsibility for the iܫncident as the two drivers left Qata♍r on good terms. 

“In the [pre-race] strategy meeting we discussed the likely [tyre] offset between the two drivers and how that would be handled. Obviously, what happened was not part of the plan, but certainly not intentional from either side,” Mercedes’ communications director Bradley Lord sa♏id. 

“I think rule number one for any racing team🤪 is that the two cars don’t make contact. That isꦚ something the drivers have bought into just like every other member of the team is as well.

“To be one car in the gravel, one in the pit lane and then plumb last at the end of Lap 1💞, is about as badly a first lap can go. But how we deal with it, we’ll talk about it behind closed doors. I think both drivers have been very magnanimous af♚terwards and we’ll talk about it and then put it behind them.

“I think the feature of this season has been how well they’ve worked together to try and lead the team back from the difficult position in which we start﷽ed with the c🍬ar, and I’m sure they’ll continue to do that for the last five races and hopefully secure P2 in the [constructors’] championship.”

Tꦑhe incident had echoes of Hamilton and Rosberg’s infamous first-lap crash at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, although both Silver Arrows were forced to retir💛e on that occasion. 

Lord, who 🦹was standing in for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff as the A💝ustrian continues his rehabilitation from a recent operation on his knee, revealed the team have a “racing intent, a sort of shared document” to avoid such clashes when racing wheel-to-wheel. 

“I remember that one,” Lord recalled. “I think experiences like 2016 and others that we’ve had over the years, actually it’s a great shared experience of how as a team we approach those moments and sort of learn from them and 🧔work through them as well.

“We have our racing intent, our sort of shared document that we all buy into in terms of how we approach races as a team, how we try to maxi♚mise the team’s points-scoring, and the drivers have bought into that along with everybody else. That’s really the basis for how we talk about things and ꦇmove forward.”