Hamil🦹ton twice battled wheel-to-wheel with Mercedes teammate Russell on his way to finishing fifth at Suzuka, while the younger Briton came home seventh after gambling on the alternative one-stop strat꧟egy. 

The pair nearly collided𒅌 during a duel that s🌠aw both run wide at Spoon, prompting a fiesty radio message from Russell, who asked “are we fighting each other or the others?”. 

In the closing stages, Mercedes instructe🧔d Russell to move aside for Hamilton, who was ch♒arging through the field on fresher tyres, leaving the former unhappy. 

“If you want to play the team gam𝕴e… he pushed me off the track earlier,” a frustrated Russell said on the radio. 

Speaking after the race, ex-F1 driver Chandhok noted clear tension between the Mercedes🧸 duo. 

“He [Hamilton] is 75 points ahead of George. He was quite quick to point that out!” Cha💮ndhok told Sky.

“There was needle with George. There is a little bit of needle between the two d🧸𒀰rivers.” 

On Russell’s strꦅategy, Chandhok said: “He didn’t have too much to lose at that point. 

“If he did the two-stop which everyone else did, he would have�🦩� ended up in the same place. 

“He was ahead of Alonso, they tried a🍃 gamble, he ended up ahead of Alonso. It was worth a punt, they finished seventh which is where they would have been anyway.” 

1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill said of Russell: “He’s smarting. Don’t forget what happened in Singapore, he dropped a load of point🦩s there. 

“He can see Lewis has gone way ahead in the drivಞer’s chamꦅpionship. He wants a good result. 

“Two-stop, one-stop, he probably woul🌺d have ended with the s❀ame result, and he has to suck that up.”