Hamilton deserved to beat me in Abu Dhabi says Russell, as he pays tribute to ‘incredible’ team mate

George Russell might have out-qualified his illustrious team mate yet again in Abu Dhabi, but he couldn’t withstand Lewis Hamilton’s late attack as the two Mercedes drivers went wheel to wheel on the final lap of the final race of the season.

Hamilton pulled off a vintage overtake, hanging it out around the outside of his team mate into Turn 9 and sneaking past into Turn 10 to grab a fourth-place finish in his final race for Mercedes. The seven-time world champion had recovered from P16 after some bad luck in qualifying, running an alternate strategy that left him with plenty to do in the closing laps to chase down Russell.

That left Russell to come home fifth, after what had proved a tough weekend where he seemed to lack pace from word go, the Briton often confused as to what was going on with his car.

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“To be honest, I’ve not had the pace all weekend and I was quite intrigued today to see if the pace would come, and it was as we expected,” said Russell afterwards.

“Lewis drove an amazing race, he’s been quicker than me all weekend and deservingly finished ahead. But we can’t be on it every single weekend, and this has probably been on a personal level the most challenging weekend. But we’ve had so many great weekends on the flip side, so you have to look at it both ways.”

Mercedes didn’t have the pace of their rivals in Abu Dhabi, but they did at least manage to keep their race clean – unlike some of their rivals, with plenty of clashes, collisions and spins making Abu Dhabi a topsy turvy affair.

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But while those incidents kept the stewards busy and hampered the progress of some arguably faster cars, the two Mercedes drivers executed the best race they could to finish just outside the podium places.

Hamilton was given the honour of completing some donuts on the main straight in front of the fans before saying an emotional goodbye to the W15. In the end, the two Mercedes drivers finished with two wins apiece, with Russell beating Hamilton to sixth in the standings.

But while their three years together haven’t yielded the results the team hoped for, the duo have made a formidable unit – with plenty of respect between the two Brits.

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“He has not only been an incredible team mate, but someone that I looked up to when I was karting and racing in junior formula. He is not only the greatest driver of all time but is the type of person that every racing driver should aspire to be. I wish him well in his next challenge and look forward to battling him on track.”