Bottas and Russell crash: 'Wrong decision can have big consequences'

George Russell and Valtteri Bottas had a particularly hard crash at Imola. Did Russell go for a move that was too risky for his position? Mika Hakkinen thinks so.

Russell versus Bottas

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix had two parts. The part before and the part after the red flag. The red flag was caused by the huge crash of Russell and Bottas. The Brit tried to get around Bottas at Turn 1, but hit the wet part of the track and lost control of his car. It was an error of judgement, according to Hakkinen.

''The enormous accident between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell was very serious, a really high speed shunt. We should be very grateful these cars are so strong, and both drivers were fine.You cannot race side-by-side on a wet-dry track, because the car on the wet side is going to have far less grip, as Russell discovered,'' Hakkinen said in his column for Unibet.com.

Big implications in F1

''It was clear that the Williams got a really good run at Valtteri’s Mercedes, and you cannot blame a young driver for going for it, but he was never going to be able to go around the outside. Also Valtteri was never going to give up the dry, racing line.''

So Hakkinen expresses his support for Bottas, although he doesn't want to put the blame on Russell either. ''It was a really unfortunate accident caused by split-second decisions. But it is a reminder that, when you make the wrong call, the consequences can be disastrous'', Hakkinen concluded.