Lewis Hamilton offer rejected at United States Grand Prix after disastrous qualifying session
Lewis Hamilton failed to get out of Q1
PA
Lewis Hamilton graciously offered up his own upgrades to George Russell after the younger British driver wrecked his car in qualifying, but Mercedes won't be making the switch for the United States Grand Prix.
Mercedes headed into Texas with strong hopes of challenging at the front having enjoyed good results in free practice.
But both drivers complained of issues on Saturday that hampered them both in the sprint race and subsequently qualifying.
Hamilton suffered the biggest shock of the day as he failed to get his car out of Q1.
Lewis Hamilton failed to get out of Q1
PARussell fared much better as he managed to get into the final shootout, but he binned his car into the tyre barrier towards the end of the session.
The 26-year-old also wrecked the new upgrades put on his car for this weekend and Mercedes have no spares.
F1 rules on a sprint weekend would allow Mercedes to switch Russell's broken parts with the ones on Hamilton's car.
And that was something Hamilton was seemingly happy to do for his team-mate.
However, Russell has explained that Hamilton will be keeping his upgrades for the race despite starting towards the back of the grid.
“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 felt perplexed at the issues both he and Hamilton faced on Saturday after initially believing they had a car capable of grabbing pole.
George Russell crashed out on Q3
PA“Yeah, I mean, it was just a really difficult session,” Russell said.
“[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.
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Getty“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.”