George Russell crashed out of the Melbourne race while trying to catch and overtake Fernando Alonso, and the incident is now being investigated by the F1 stewards.
George Russell stopped short of accusing Fernando Alonso of brake-testing him at the Australian Grand Prix.
“He pointed out that there was something unusual about the Spaniard’s behavior towards the end of the race, which ultimately caused the Briton to crash.
Russell spun out of control in his Mercedes while trying to catch up to the Aston Martin in front of him.”
After crashing into the wall, he veered off into the gravel.
The car turned onto its side, but Russell managed to exit unharmed. He was then driven back to the paddock by the medical car.
The incident is under investigation and both drivers have been called to the stewards to explain their perspectives on what happened. Replays appeared to show Alonso slow down before the braking zone which may have been a contributing factor to the crash.
The Spaniard insisted he was looking ahead of him rather than behind at the time. And Russell is happy to give his rival the benefit of the doubt for now, but was clearly suspicious of the Aston Martin driver’s actions.
He said: “I’ve gone off and that’s on me, but I was half-a-second behind Fernando 100 metres before the corner and, suddenly, he came towards me extremely quickly and I was right on his gearbox.
“I don’t know if he had a problem or not – it’s gone to the stewards. That’s a bit bizarre in a circumstance like this. I’ve got nothing more to say right now, I’m just disappointed to end the race like that.”
In response to a question about whether he was brake-tested by Alonso, Russell stated that it was evident that Alonso braked 100 meters before the corner and then accelerated to take the corner normally, as shown in the available data.
I will not make any accusations against him until we have more information.
I was following closely behind him for several laps, trailing by half a second as we approached the corner. Suddenly, he slowed down significantly before accelerating again.
“I was taken aback by the unexpected nature of the situation. I take responsibility for my reaction, but I find it intriguing that we have been summoned by the stewards. We will wait and see what they have to communicate.”