Lewis Hamilton and George Russell explain dramatic Japanese GP for Mercedes as pair come close to contact at Suzuka

Lewis Hamilton says he felt “exhausted” after a rollercoaster race which saw him nearly collide with Mercedes team-mate George Russell on two occasions and suggested they should have been switched around earlier when the pair found each other again near the end of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton and Russell traded positions after the Safety Car restart, with the seven-time world champion jinking to the right slightly on the fast run into Turn 1.

On Lap 16, Hamilton ran wide at the second Degner, which allowed Russell to get a run on him going towards Spoon Curve at Turn 13. However, Hamilton edged his team-mate out wide, so Russell questioned “are we fighting each other or the others?”

“I’m exhausted, for one. Fighting with absolutely everything I have to get as high up as possible and get ahead of Ferrari, which had an upgrade this week so they were particularly quick,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“They have been quicker the last three races. It was a hell of a fight. I scored the most points for the team, I’m really trying to hold on [to second] for the constructors’ title because I really know how important it is for everyone back at the factories.

“So giving it absolutely everything, but it’s tough on weekends like this particularly where the car is such a handful. Basically the exact same as last year, so feeling-wise the car felt just the same as last year, bouncing and sliding. So that’s tough given how much work we have done to progress and we are not any closer to the front, at least here.

“But we did get ahead of one of the Ferraris which is great team work and great work from the guys in the pit stop and with strategy. A long way to go.”

Mercedes explain Russell-Hamilton swap

The other dramatic moment came with five laps to go as Hamilton found himself stuck behind Russell, who was trying to hold onto fifth place with a bold one-stop strategy.

Russell wanted to work together with Hamilton by keeping him in his DRS, rather than letting him through, so that both drivers could stay ahead of a charging Carlos Sainz. Coincidentally, Sainz made the DRS tactic work on his way to victory at the Singapore Grand Prix a week earlier.

Instead, Russell did let Hamilton by but was subsequently overtaken by Sainz too and finished in seventh. On the radio Russell said with frustration: “if you want to play the team game…he pushed me off the track earlier,” referring to the incident with Hamilton earlier in the Grand Prix.

“When you’re in the car and 48 laps in, you’re giving it everything and you’re making a sub-optimal strategy to try and work. That radio is a vent to release some frustration,” explained Russell.

“Overtaking was difficult. You saw Piastri with much fresher tyres and a much faster car this weekend, he didn’t fly by. It took him two laps.

“For me the goal is to secure P2 in the constructors’. On my personal side, the drivers’ championship is totally out of the window. It’s been a complete disaster of a season, so many missed chances. Lewis is in a really good position for P3. Standing here now, it’s all good.”

Hamilton disagreed with Russell’s motivation to use a DRS train to try and get both Mercedes to finish ahead of Sainz.

“We should have swapped around earlier and I should have got as far ahead as possible to get the gap as big as we could to the Ferrari,” he said. “He (Russell) was trying to fight me, he was damaging his tyres and I think it just made it all complicated.

“The fact is we are not fighting each other in the team championship. As drivers it is not important where we are. What is important is that one of us finishes ahead of the Ferrari and to keep the position. Today we really needed to work as a team.

“When they suggested it to me I knew that they obviously thought of it from the last race but it made no sense. I needed to get as far clear as possible. I was on my way, around two seconds ahead and they asked me to give George DRS and I had to come off the gas down the straight. Then he got overtaken by Sainz. He then got past George and he was right on my tail which was not ideal.”

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin added: “When we decided to switch them, we saw how quick Carlos was behind and Lewis in the middle could have been at risk on older tyres as well.

“Maybe, it could have worked out better but the thing we were trying to protect against was Lewis losing that position as well because he was the one who was most likely to finish ahead of Carlos.”

Why did Russell do a one-stop?

Russell was the only driver to complete the Japanese Grand Prix with a one-stop, which many people thought was not possible before the race.

It didn’t gain the British driver anything in the end and Shovlin admitted Hamilton’s unfortunate contact with Perez at the start, which put the Mercedes pair together on track, was a reason for the differing strategies.

“The way the race panned out from the start with the contact from Perez on Lewis, we lost a position and were on the backfoot. It was always going to be very marginal with making the strategies work and fighting the Ferraris,” he explained.

“That’s why we split the strategies, knowing there was a potential for interaction and that we may have to manage that on track.

“They are obviously both racing hard in a car that was tricky – pushing to the limit. There was some radio traffic that reflected that but we got into the habit of not reading too much into what’s said in the heat of the moment and pressure of a cockpit – particularly at a hot and demanding race like this one.

“Everything that needs tidying up, we will discuss afterwards away from that pressure cooker nice and calmly.”

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