The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix stewards have cleared George Russell and Valtteri Bottas of blame for their dramatic collision which caused the race to be stopped.
The pair made contact approaching Tamburello as Russel was attempting to overtake his rival. Both drivers blamed the other for the crash.But after speaking to both and studying footage of the collision, the stewards deemed it was a racing incident and decided not to penalise either of them.
Russell accused Bottas of violating an agreement between drivers not to make sudden moves while being overtaken. But the stewards ruled both drivers behaved correctly.
“Car 63 [Russell] approached car 77 [Bottas] to pass after the front straight a few laps after the restart when DRS had recently been enabled,” the stewards explained. “Car 77 maintained his line throughout the incident along the right hand side of the dry line, leaving at least a full car’s width to the right at all times.
“Car 63 approached with a significant speed advantage. He moved to pass on the right. As the cars approached the kink of turn one, the gap between them and the right hand side of the track decreased. At no time did either car manoeuvre erratically.
“The track appeared to be not especially wet through turn one but at the point of closest approach to the right hand side of the track, the right hand side tyres of car 63 hit an especially damp patch and the car snap-yawed, bearing in mind that the car had low downforce in the rear with the DRS open.
“The stewards conclude that the accident was a racing incident considering the conditions and take no further action.”
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Niefer (@niefer)
18th April 2021, 18:45
The right decision. Better luck next time.
John H (@john-h)
18th April 2021, 18:47
Like many others, I would probably say George was a more to blame, but ok racing incident they say. However it would have been good for the stewards to also comment on the behaviour after the incident, Russell coming over to the car with Bottas winded from the accident and slapping the helmet, can’t say I was too pleased to see that from the head of the GPDA no less. I really like Russell usually, but this was somewhat unprofessional and he fully deserved the middle finger.
Jordan
18th April 2021, 21:10
Did he actually hit the helmet or was it the halo? I didnt see any part of Bottas move from the “blow” and that the stewards/Bottas/Russell/Toto have said nothing about a physical altercation makes me think the angle makes it look worse than it was.
Jordan (@hunkulese)
18th April 2021, 21:16
He definitely smacked the helmet. He wasn’t trying to actually do damage, so a petulant smack isn’t going to move anything with a helmet on.
Balue (@balue)
18th April 2021, 21:36
@john-h +1
Kribana (@krichelle)
18th April 2021, 18:49
Perfect. One must wonder, had it been another driver instead of Russell, could that driver perform the overtake, and avoid touching the grass? The more Russell gets involved in these incidents, the more that will persuade Mercedes to look into other drivers.
David BR (@david-br)
18th April 2021, 19:40
@krichelle Or perhaps Mercedes could reflect that they’ve left him too long to stew at the back of the grid. Now Williams/Russell are moving into points range, and VB seems to be drifting down field, the chances of them meeting on track look likely to continue.
LB (@burden93)
18th April 2021, 21:06
Russell made the point and I kind of agree, would Bottas have defended that hard against any driver other than Russell? Mercedes have created a scenario where every time these two come together on track they both feel they have to beat the other at all costs.
The only positive for Mercedes is unless Bottas is having a terrible race or Russell is having a blinder they won’t come across each other much!
Jordan (@hunkulese)
18th April 2021, 21:15
It’s a pretty silly point to try and make. Of course he would’ve defended against everyone else. They’re out there racing. Bottas didn’t do anything egregious, and you see stuff like that every weekend. If Russell had held his line, it would’ve been fine, but he panicked.
You have to trust that your competitor isn’t going to push you into the grass/wall or you can’t be a race car driver.
Patrick (@paeschli)
18th April 2021, 21:52
Maybe Bottas shouldn’t be fighting a Williams in the first place?
Peter Farrington
18th April 2021, 18:57
Question, why was Bottas in 9th place in the first place ? I think alarm bells rang when he thought George was passing him . Difficult to sit at home with so many “experts “ passing judgement !
Depailler
18th April 2021, 20:17
+100!
Bottas was out for a jolly Sunday afternoon drive in the country.
Disgraceful that he was in a position where a williams could even get alongside him!
moodygirl
19th April 2021, 0:31
Nothing from Bottas why he was slow enough to be passed by Russell.
Daryl (@furkmyster)
18th April 2021, 19:00
Since there was barely one dry racing line, I don’t think DRS should have been enabled by the race director at this point in the race. The rest of the track was looking better for wider dry lines, but in this attack pass zone, it was not safe yet.
Qeki (@qeki)
18th April 2021, 19:09
@furkmyster I get your point. If I remember correctly when drivers put any sets of those dry tyres they are allowed to use DRS.
slowmo (@slowmo)
18th April 2021, 19:32
Pretty sure its based on driver tyre usage predominantly because race control would struggle to make any judgement on what is dry enough. Regardless of DRS, Russell used poor judgement.
Dave
18th April 2021, 19:04
100% racing incident, yes.
DaveW (@dmw)
18th April 2021, 19:34
It just looked like Russell got frit and went onto the grass. His really nasty behavior to bottas afterward was not impressive.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
18th April 2021, 20:26
+1
I also think he panicked a bit and then didn’t see things clearly…
David
18th April 2021, 20:57
I do hope that George has taken the time to apologise for hitting Valterri on the helmet after the crash.
Very unprofessional.
It probably felt like #77’s fault in the heat of the moment, but it was solely the result of optimism on a damp track.
Dave
18th April 2021, 21:47
I demand him an immediate reconciliation right now.
TurboBT
19th April 2021, 6:09
he screwed big time this time. Toto is probably thinking again if he wants to get RUS to his team anytime soon.
macaque (@macaque)
18th April 2021, 21:36
Looking at George’s onboard, I am surprised no one is praising the halo right now. It looked to me like George’s car could’ve done a lot more damage.
Dave
18th April 2021, 21:48
Saw tweets praising the halo and that delighted me. Forza Halo.
Mr Squiggle
18th April 2021, 23:25
Some good comments here today. For my money, the stewards are right to say it was a racing incident, but Russell had so much to lose from the attempt.
How often is a Williams in P9 these days? Russell has tried to overtake around the outside. On a wet track. The merc in front is the reigning constructor champion. Merc is his current employer. So much to lose from a bad decision….
All valteri did was defend his position. You are allowed one defensive move on a straight.
Xcm
19th April 2021, 3:21
I immediately went on YouTube to search for the video of this. Just for you ricciardo!
My guess is they were #racingasone
Dave
13th June 2021, 15:40
My guess is that Russell was upset that Bottas went on Ramp with him when he was supposed to go on A
Dave
26th September 2021, 9:14
This didn’t age well