George Russell says his collision with team-mate Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix was a “big miscommunication”.
At the end of Q2, both Russell and Hamilton were starting fast laps but were nose and tail as they drove down the start-finish straight.
High-speed contact was made between the pair which resulted in damage to Hamilton’s front wing.
The seven-time World Champion was still able to progress into the final stage of qualifying, while Russell, who was already enduring difficulties during the session, was eliminated.
Reflecting on the incident Russell said: “I’m not too sure what happened in the incident with Lewis. It was all quite surprising. I was starting my push lap and getting the slipstream from [Carlos] Sainz ahead. Next thing I know Lewis was alongside me.
“We’re fortunate nothing more serious happened and it was clearly a big miscommunication from all of us in the team. It didn’t contribute to the lack of pace though and that was the main problem for me.”
Hamilton, who wound up fifth overall, agreed that it was a “miscommunication” and asserted that his W14 had no long-lasting problems from the contact.
“I was a little bit surprised to see us so far up today and ultimately competing for the front-row of the grid,” he said.
“We did some great work overnight with our analysis of yesterday; we all did a lot of work trying to figure out where we could find more lap time. I knew when I woke up this morning that I was on a mission, although I didn’t expect we would be fighting for P2.
“On my final lap, I think I was on the front-row all the way until turn 10. I got on the power and the car just snapped into oversteer; I will have to check but I think that’s where I lost two tenths. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed driving the car today and I’m really encouraged to see where it is at. A big thank you to everyone at the factory as it shows we are progressing.”
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