© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
George Russell has seriously toned down his criticism of Valtteri Bottas after their huge crash at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
After the crash happened Russell was very critical of Valtteri Bottas, even voicing his opinion in person while the Finn was still in his car.
After the race Russell accused Bottas of being too aggressive and jolting, also adding the Finn would not have been as aggressive if it was a different driver attacking him.
Both Bottas and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff found the theory to be far-fetched, and now after reviewing the footage, Russell has toned down his criticism of the Finn.
“When you can review everything and look at it in slow motion and everything, and from certain camera angles, it all looks very, very different,” Russell explained.
“One camera angle makes it look one way, another camera angle, like I said, when you watch it from behind on the CCTV footage it looked quite clear, in a different opinion.
“I was more frustrated because of the speed of the incident. I’ve never, ever had a crash at the end of a straight when we’re absolutely flat-out.
“And we’ve all seen the dangers of motorsport very recently and to be honest I would have reacted exactly the same had it been battling for the win, battling for ninth or battling for last. Because I just thought it was unnecessary and it was avoidable.
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“As I said, Valtteri did nothing that was outside the rules, but you have to take an element of responsibility and consideration into the fact of the conditions.
“There’s certain things you can do in certain ways when everything’s stable, but when it’s a damp track, there is a kink, and you’re pushing someone towards the grass, onto the damp patches at over 200 miles an hour.
“There is a high risk of an incident, and that is why I was very disappointed because I just thought that was beyond a lack of respect, really, not towards me, but just a lack of respect towards these cars.
“Could it have been avoided? Yes. Was Valtteri in the wrong? Probably not. Could he have done something slightly more? Maybe. Was I in the wrong? I caused the crash by spinning, but was I wrong to go for that overtake? Absolutely not.
“You would have been foolish to lift at that position,” concluded the Briton.
