Hamilton was at fault for their collision into the first cജorner of t🐼he opening lap in Qatar.

The contact forced Hamilton out of the race - his first DNF of the year - and Russell dropped to the bꦡack of the field.

Russell ultimately recovered to finish fourth, suggesting ♒it was a missed opportunity for꧂ Mercedes given his impressive race pace.

Speaking after the race to Sky Italia, Hamilton explained why his relationship with Russell will be 🐓unaffected by the incident.

"I think we are a great team. George and I still have a great relationship. We will discuss things and w♈ork away," Hamil🅰ton said.

"I'm happy to take responsibility as the older guy. I don't think Geo🐻rge had anywhere to go a🧜t that point.

"I was trying to get ahead of both of them and just an unfortunate situation. I had the worst tyre of everyone around me, so I needed to try and get a📖head. Big risk, big penalty."

"The relationship isn't broken. I don't have any problems with George, we have a great rel✃ationship, we work and we always talk about things.

"So this is definitely unfortunate and I'm sure he was frustrated in the moment like I was. But we will talk about it offline and we move forwards. As I said, just apo𝓰logies to all of the team."