Martin Brundle believes Williams' George Russell's desire to pass the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas clouded his judgement a little, leading to their crash on Lap 32 of the Emilia Romagna GP. The Sky Sports F1 analyst wrote in his post-race column about the crash, in which Russell and Bottas collided at high speed while battling in the lower points places. Both cars ended up in the barriers, each driver angrily blaming the other, although Russell has since apologised for his furious response. "It was a crash which fits into the category of 'I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often", Brundle wrote. The track had a defined dry line with moisture present on both sides, and Turn 1 is simply a left-hand kink. Bottas wanted to stay on the dry line, that's totally his prerogative as long as he left space either side, which he did. "It's likely that Russell consciously or sub-consciously really wanted to pass the car which he is hoping to be driving next year with a touch of red mist involved. But he's also a racer and had the due track position, slipstream and closing speed. "With the aero balance forward due to the DRS rear wing being open, the curvature of the track, and driving onto the wetter part, his wheels spun up and he speared into the side of Bottas triggering a huge amount of damage." Brundle agreed with the race stewards decision that neither driver was predominantly to blame for the crash itself, but absolved Bottas of doing anything wrong in his defence and positioning on track. The former F1 racer then wrote that Russell should have been more wary about how his angry response could be perceived by the people that control his career at this stage. "I can't see any blame for Bottas," Brundle said, "and Russell needs to carefully consider if he should have seen the peril unfolding, backed out and waited for a less risky move, and also how he behaved after the shunt with his words and actions. "He's a young feisty racer seizing a passing opportunity, and you absolutely wouldn't want to knock that out of him, but especially up against a works Mercedes he needed to consider the bigger picture and play the percentage game more carefully. "Toto Wolff effectively controls both their careers and so I imagine that was an interesting conversation…"
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