Lewis Hamilton and George Russell avoided penalties after colliding at the first corner at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix.
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The stewards reviewed the clash between the two Mercedes drivers but judged it to be a lap-one racing incident and found no single driver wholly to blame.
Hamilton, who had started third on soft tyres, was attempting an outside move on Russell and pole-sitter Max Verstappen, both of whom were on medium tyres, at turn one. The two Mercedes made contact—Hamilton’s right-rear wheel struck Russell’s left-front—causing both cars to go off track. Russell managed to continue, but Hamilton was forced to retire at the scene.
After examining video footage and weighing whether Hamilton bore primary responsibility, the stewards concluded that neither driver would be penalised.
“Whilst the argument can be made that car 44 [Hamilton] was predominantly at fault, the stewards, taking into account that the incident happened in lap one and several cars were involved, determine that the incident is considered as a typical ‘lap one, turn one’ incident and no driver is wholly at fault,” they said. “Therefore no further action is taken.”
Initially, Hamilton blamed Russell for the collision, but after reviewing the replay he accepted responsibility. Russell responded that he appreciated the apology. “As I said on the radio in every incident it involves two people and definitely appreciate what he said,” he commented.
Separately, the stewards issued a reprimand to Fernando Alonso for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner after running wide at turn two and coming back in close proximity to Charles Leclerc.
“Car 14 [Alonso] went off track in turn two, continued on the run-off and rejoined at high speed right in front of car 16 [Leclerc],” the stewards explained. “Although car 16 did not have to take any evasive measures, the stewards determine that given the speed and the angle in which car 14 came back on track, he rejoined in an unsafe manner.”
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