The Dutch GP was the epitome of drama, with multiple incidents and a plethora of things to talk about. From Ferrari’s poor pit strategy to a late safety car drama, the race had it all! An unexpected bit of drama that did not come to pass was between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

After the Valtteri Bottas’ DNF forced the safety car, Russell pitted for softer tires despite making a stop for mediums a few laps earlier. Race leader Verstappen also pitted during the safety car periods, but Hamilton stayed out on the mediums. The mediums put Hamilton at a disadvantage, proved later with Verstappen’s easy overtake after the restart.

Russell, on the softs, was quicker than his teammate and went for the overtake. During the overtaking maneuver, Russell almost rammed into the back of Hamilton’s W13. The near miss could’ve been a costly affair and did not go unnoticed.

At the post-race presser, when asked about the overtake, Russell played the whole incident down. He said, “I think obviously with that overtake with Lewis, just a bit of confusion and I came out just as he defended, and yeah, it could a bit nasty, but it’s nothing but respect between the two of us. So yeah, all good.”

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Every man for himself is the core mentality of every Formula 1 driver, and Russell stayed true to it. However, the overtake could’ve been cleaner even though Russell played it down.

Russell might have played it down, but the world of Twitter isn’t as kind.

George Russell feels the brunt of his overtake attempt on Lewis Hamilton

The Twitter fandom can be cruel and biased at times. This time the bias is with Lewis as the Hamilton stans are ripping Russell to shreds with their comments for his overtake. Fans on Twitter are also pointing out how Russell isn’t a team player with his call for soft tires.

Russell explained his radio call saying, “I think as a team it was an incredibly difficult decision because had we both pitted, we would have conceded the position to Max. Had we both stayed out, we probably both would have lost out to Max as well so the best chance we as a team had of victory was splitting the cars.”

Despite his explanation, Russell is facing a lot of backlash.

A lot of parallels are being drawn between Russell and Bottas. Most claim that the five-time championship-winning partnership was far superior to the current partnership at Mercedes.

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The uncalled-for hate will die down soon. However, it is scary to see how easily a world of hate can be expressed towards someone for almost causing a crash.