Hamilton exhibits true colors with Russell gesture after depressing qualification

Lewis Hamilton offered his Mercedes teammate George Russell some spare parts after the 26-year-old’s horror crash.

Hamilton had one of his worst qualifying results ever at the United States Grand Prix on Saturday (19 October) evening. The seven-time World Champion was the second slowest driver on the grid, finishing P19.

But he still had time to for the touching gesture towards Russell, who smashed his car into a wall on his final lap: “Lewis has already kindly offered me his [parts,] but we are not going to do that.

“It’s a real shame, everyone back at base deserves better but we’re all pushing the limits here to try and get the car on the front row and fight for big results and we achieved it yesterday [in Sprint qualifying], today it’s the opposite.”

Mercedes had brought various upgrades to their car for the race in Austin, however, after the crash, that was an impossibility for Russell’s machine.

Hamilton himself suffered a tough qualification session, and offered the parts to Russell, who was starting higher up in the grid.

The Brit had never previously been knocked out of the first stage of qualifying for a Grand Prix in America.

“In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension and I had that throughout the Sprint race,” said a downbeat Hamilton.

“That made the balance really difficult. We did change a couple of things to push us in the direction of what we would have done yesterday and the car was a nightmare today in qualifying.

“I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I will not be going anywhere. It was just an inconsistent balance and no grip.”