{"id":812440,"date":"2026-07-19T16:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/812440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:15:11","slug":"george-russell-furious-at-dangerous-battery-issue-before-hamilton-spa-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/812440\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell furious at “dangerous” battery issue before Hamilton Spa 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 lap 1. But the Briton was more “angry” due to the lack of battery charge that left him a sitting duck on the\u00a0Kemmel straight than the contact with the Ferrari<\/a> itself.<\/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’s Charles 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 bed, ending Russell’s race on the spot.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/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 Motorsport.com.<\/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 Motorsport.com how 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

Photos from Belgian GP – Sunday<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.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":812441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3272,49,48,578,282831,576,577,3024,285080,1881,82],"class_list":["post-812440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-belgian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-belgian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-george-russell-furious-at-dangerous-battery-issue-before-hamilton-spa-clash","tag-mercedes","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}