George Russell paid a visit to the Ferrari offices after the United States Grand Prix to personally apologise to Carlos Sainz for causing the crash which ruined the Spaniard's race.
Sainz started on pole in Texas, and would have been hoping to translate that into the second victory of his Formula 1 career. But instead, his race was ended in seconds as Russell crashed into the side of his Ferrari at the first corner.
The Spaniard had lost the lead to Max Verstappen and turned into the sharp corner hoping to get a good run in the hope of taking first place back from the Red Bull star. But Russell had placed his Mercedes on a very tight inside line and T-boned the Ferrari, causing it to spin.
Worse than that, it sprang a water leak and Ferrari were forced to retire the car. Russell had five seconds added to his race time as a result, to which Sainz reacted: "For sure a penalty was deserved. If he deserves five, 10 or a stop-go I'm not going to evaluate. I think you've never seen this kind of incident in the top three positions because normally in the top four drivers don't do these kind of mistakes."
After the race Russell, who finished in fifth place, admitted he had made a mess of the corner and took responsibility for the crash. He also visited the Ferrari hospitality area to personally apologise to Sainz for ruining his race.
He also said sorry in his post-race TV interview, in which he explained what had happened from his point of view. "Firstly, apologies to Carlos – you never want to be involved in an incident that ultimately destroys somebody else's race," said the Mercedes star.
"When I attacked at Turn 1, I was focused on the three cars around me and I was expecting Carlos to try and fight it around the outside of Max. So I braked quite deep into the corner and when I saw he tried cutting back underneath Max, it was already too late for me there and yeah, I can't avoid the incident.
"Hands up from from my side, I should have been aware of that possibility. From there on in, to be honest, it was a really miserable afternoon for me. I've been off the pace all weekend and I know we had some damage so [that] gives me a bit of peace of mind this evening if that damage turns out to be more than we first expected.
"But, as soon as I recognised we were out of striking range of a better position, it was a matter of just trying to bring the car home. It's very difficult in these conditions, and we clearly see compared to Red Bull where we're strong, where we're weak, and for me personally not too sure."
