[Saba Sports News] At the recently concluded Belgian Grand Prix, George Russell collided with Lewis Hamilton through a corner. The impact sent Russell’s car spinning violently out of control before it came to rest stranded in the gravel trap, forcing him to retire from the race. The incident not only brought Russell’s Grand Prix to an abrupt end but also resulted in Hamilton being handed a five-second time penalty post-race. The crash unfolded at the opening phase of Lap 44 at Spa-Francorchamps. Starting from fifth position, Hamilton capitalised on a flaw in Russell’s power deployment down the Kemmel Straight to complete the overtake. As they braked for Les Combes, Russell moved to Hamilton’s outside line, and contact between the two machines immediately followed. Russell’s car was shunted straight into the gravel runoff, ending his race on the spot. Though Russell himself did not lay the blame on Hamilton, the race stewards still issued the five-second penalty to the seven-time world champion. Hamilton offered his take on the incident: “It’s not like I dived in aggressively or misjudged my braking line or anything of that sort. To me, this was just an unfortunate racing incident — these things happen in motorsport. My car sustained damage too, and I had to fight through the entire grand prix carrying that issue; it made the race really tough.”
For Scuderia Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton endured a troublesome weekend in Belgium. Late in the final session of Free Practice 3, he crashed his car, forcing the mechanics to race against the clock repairing the machine ahead of qualifying. The drama carried over into the Grand Prix. He pitted during the Virtual Safety Car window to serve his five-second penalty, yet as he pulled away from his pit box, the right-front wheel of his car struck one of the team’s mechanics. Fortunately, this mishap only resulted in a fine for Ferrari after the race and did not cost him his fourth-place finish.