Sirotkin 'not too angry’ with Hamilton for Q2 near-miss

Sergey Sirotkin says he has nothing to be “too angry” at Lewis Hamilton for following the pair’s near-miss during qualifying for the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix.

In a scramble to get flying laps in on slick tyres amid the increasing threat of rain towards the end of Q2, Sirotkin caught the back of Hamilton at the end of his out-lap, with the recently-crowned champion narrowly avoiding collecting the Williams driver as he inadvertently jinked into his path.

Sirotkin was able to avoid making contact with Hamilton’s Mercedes as he took to the grass in at high-speed, while the Interlagos stewards are yet to confirm whether they will look into the incident further.

“Why everybody asking about Lewis and not about where we are?,” Sirotkin replied when asked for his view on the incident.

“To be honest [there’s] nothing I’m too angry with him for,” he added.

“I needed to push that lap to get my tyres... It was all a bit unplanned where we were and we could not put the tyres in the blankets between the runs so we were massively down on temps.

“Basically that outlap was as quick as my any other lap, almost. I was properly flat out, I was coming through the very quick left hander there, and he was stopping to prepare his lap.

“I went on the left, not even hoping that he would let me go because he was so slow and I was coming so quickly and then in the last minute he saw me and tried to avoid me.

“He gave me the racing line but I was already on the left so I had to pass through the grass and basically my lap was ruined after that.

“But he’s a champion, he knows what he’s doing and didn’t change my position at the end of the day. But it’s a good day in general.”

Hamilton, who went on to claim his 10th pole position of the season, hit out at Sirotkin following the session, accusing the Russian of “a disrespectful move” that he decribed as being “completely unnecessary”.

Sirotkin has since been summoned to the stewards for “driving unnecessarily slowly” on an in-lap during qualifying, with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen - who qualified 11th – has also been pulled up for the same infringement.