Hamilton: It was 100% my fault

At first Lewis Hamilton accused Mercedes teammate George Russell of taking him out of the Qatar Grand Prix after the two collided at the first corner of the opening lap on Sunday. Russell continued after a pitstop but Hamilton's car ended up in the gravel minus a rear wheel.

"I got taken out by my own team mate," said the seven-time F1 Champion over the radio.

Hamilton had complained before the start that lining up on soft tyres made him a 'sitting duck' for others but he did not get far enough to find out.

He tried to go around Russell on the outside but his rear right wheel made contact with the front left of the younger Briton's car, spinning both around.

"Come on! What the ...," exclaimed Russell as he made his way back to the pits with the safety car deployed.

"I'm so sorry guys. I wasn't even looking behind," he added. "I was just focused ahead and he just came from nowhere.

"Lost for words, honestly," he said a bit later. "I've just seen the replays on the TV screen. I couldn't do anything. I was totally sandwiched."

Team boss Toto Wolff, who is not in Qatar due to recent knee surgery, then came on the radio to tell Russell to focus on the race.

Russell had started second on the grid with Hamilton third and looking likely to increase the 26 point gap between them and third-placed Ferrari in the 2023 F1 Constructors' Standings.

Ferrari had already lost Carlos Sainz before the start to a fuel system problem.

However, Hamilton later started gradually retracting his initial statement, and discussed the incident with Sky Sports F1, he said: "I just feel really sorry to my team. It was an opportunity today to get some good points.

"In the heat of the moment, I didn't really understand what happened, I just obviously felt the tap from behind," he added. "But I don't think George probably had anywhere to go and, yeah, it's just one of those really unfortunate situations.

"I mean, I'm happy to take responsibility as the older one," the 38-year-old maintained.

But then Hamilton took to social media to admit he was to blame for the clash with Russell, having seen the replay and realizing what exactly happened.

"It's massively gutting to have a result like this," Hamilton said on social media. "It's very rare that this happens to me. I hope George is able to get back into the points today so I'll be supporting him."

"I’ve watched the replay and it was 100% my fault and I take full responsibility. Apologies to my team and to George," the Briton concluded.

With Hamilton leaving the Qatar Grand Prix with zero points, that means the gap to second-placed Sergio Perez in the F1 Drivers' Championship is now 30 points.

And with fourth-placed Fernando Alonso finishing the race in sixth, scoring eight points, the Spaniard has now closed the gap to Hamilton in third down to 11 points.