{"id":1098955,"date":"2026-07-19T15:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T15:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1098955\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T15:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T15:39:23","slug":"russell-slams-dangerous-battery-issue-before-hamilton-belgian-gp-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1098955\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell slams “dangerous” battery issue before Hamilton Belgian GP clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> suffered his latest gut punch in the 2026 Formula 1 season after contact with\u00a0Lewis Hamilton<\/a> ended his Belgian Grand Prix on the opening lap, but he was more “angry” at the lack of battery charge that left him a sitting duck on the Kemmel straight.<\/p>\n

Russell started third at Spa-Francorchamps, but was swallowed by the chasing pack on the long uphill blast from Raidillon to Turn 5’s Les Combes.<\/p>\n

After being easily passed by Ferrari<\/a>‘s\u00a0Charles Leclerc<\/a>, Russell also came under threat from Hamilton, who took the inside into the right-hander. But the Ferrari driver understeered into Russell’s right rear corner to tip the Briton into the gravel and ended his race on the spot.<\/p>\n

A frustrated Russell explained his Mercedes<\/a> battery failed to recharge as he braked into the La Source hairpin at the start, which left him vulnerable to challenges from behind in the first place.<\/p>\n

“I made a good start. I made a great first corner and I was tucked up right behind Verstappen, but for whatever reason, the battery decided not to recharge at Turn 1,” Russell told media, including Autosport.<\/p>\n

“The battery didn’t charge and I exited the first corner 35% down. And because it didn’t charge, I also had a boost problem. The turbo didn’t sort itself out, so I had no power. I got to the top of Eau Rouge with 0% on the battery. Quite frankly, it was dangerous. I got swamped by three cars.<\/p>\n

“I shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. That’s why I’m the most angry.”<\/p>\n

\"George <\/p>\n

George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hamilton received a five-second penalty for causing the collision, but Russell was less upset by the contact than by the power unit trouble that led up to it.<\/p>\n

“Me and Lewis, honestly, I think it was a race incident,” Russell said. “He didn’t do it on purpose. He was more to blame than I was. But he didn’t do anything reckless.<\/p>\n

“That was one of those things I was most angry about, that I was in that position in the first place. I was in a great position after Turn 1. I was ready to fight the two guys ahead of me up to Turn 5. Instead, I got swamped by three drivers.”<\/p>\n

When asked by Autosport\u00a0how he is dealing with his latest setback after a rollercoaster 2026 campaign thus far, he replied: “I’m numb to the disappointment now. When it happens so often, you just get used to it.”<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell suffered his latest gut punch in the 2026 Formula 1 season after contact with\u00a0Lewis Hamilton ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1098956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[102345,102346,707,9824,13,4859,12,299960,14],"class_list":["post-1098955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-belgian-gp","tag-circuit-de-spa-francorchamps","tag-formula-1","tag-george-russell","tag-headlines","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-russell-slams-dangerous-battery-issue-before-hamilton-belgian-gp-clash","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116947397304105164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1098956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}