George Russell puts doubt on Lewis Hamilton’s F1 Bahrain GP set-up claim

George Russell has questioned Mercedes F1 teammate Lewis Hamilton’s claim the pair went in different set-up directions over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Russell qualified third on the grid behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Hamilton ended up a disappointing ninth, 0.225 seconds behind his Mercedes teammate.

The seven-time world champion revealed he went in a different direction with set-up compared to Russell in a bid to have a better race.

"Thursday, was really good. Me and George were on the same set-ups but he went 'left' and I went 'right'. 'Right' was definitely not good for a single lap but I felt more comfortable with more fuel, so I hope that reflects in the race," Hamilton explained.

"I've definitely sacrificed more than I hoped to and I hope it pays off. It's a lot of work to do to get past all those quick cars ahead of me but it will be fun.”

Russell slipped back to fifth in the grand prix, two places ahead of Hamilton who could only recover to seventh as both Mercedes drivers were hampered by unexpected power unit temperature issues.

After the race, Russell challenged Hamilton’s set-up claim.

“Many people have said this,” Russell said of Hamilton’s set-up choice.

“I don’t really know the big differences, to be honest, because as far as I’m aware with the cars we’re pretty similar.

“I don’t really focus too much on his set-up. Mine was actually more set up for the race than the set-up he ran. At least it was on Friday [for qualifying].”

Hamilton reported several issues during the race including power issues and a broken seat.

“For a while like my battery was dead, so down the straights I was just derating the whole way down the straight,” he explained.

“So I lost a lot of ground to the McLarens. I was fixing that out for some laps, and that took a good 10 laps, and I lost plenty of seconds through that.

“And then, after that, was just really trying to get back on it, and catch up, as soon we got that fixed. And then there was a bit of overheating of the brakes. And then in general, the performance was so-so.”