Lewis Hamilton has offered his upgraded-spec Mercedes parts to team-mate George Russell, following the latter’s crash in qualifying for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
Mercedes endured a miserable qualifying on Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas.
After both cars fought for pole in Sprint Qualifying on Friday, Saturday saw Hamilton exit in Q1 and Russell crash hard in the Q3 top-10 shootout.
Russell’s crash has consigned his upgraded Mercedes parts to the rubbish heap and with Hamilton’s race effectively ruined, he’s offered to give his parts up to benefit his team-mate.
“I mean, Lewis has already kindly offered me his parts, but we’re not going to do that,” Russell said.
“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 some big results.
“We achieved it [Friday] and [Saturday] it’s quite the opposite.”
Russell pushed too hard leading to qualifying crash
Russell explained his crash simply came about as he was overcompensating the pace deficit Mercedes experienced in qualifying compared to Friday.
Whereas Russell qualified within 12 thousandths of Sprint polesitter Max Verstappen at the start of the US GP weekend, his qualifying crash came as he fought to improve upon sixth place.
“Yeah, I mean, it was just a really difficult session,” Russell explained.
“[Friday] we had a car, both Lewis and I fighting for pole position.
“[Saturday] we were both almost out in Q1 and then I was six-tenths away from pole at the start of Q3.
“I was on a really strong lap. I was five-tenths up at one point, but then it went away from me in Sector 3 and then obviously I had the crash.
“I was really disappointed because the team have worked so hard to bring these upgrades to the car.
“And I was just trying too hard to find something that, in all honesty, wasn’t there and paid the price.
“So, yeah, really quite upset with how that’s ended, but yeah, I don’t know what to say.”
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