GEORGE RUSSELL has hit back at Lewis Hamilton's claim that he had luck on his side during the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
Russell outperformed Hamilton in qualifying before finishing P4, a place above his team-mate, in the race.
But Hamilton insisted there was an element of good fortune about Russell's pace, given they had opted for different set-ups around the Jeddah circuit.
Following the race the 38-year-old said Russell's strategy would "more often than not" be the "wrong one", and consequently he "could only match his pace rather than be quicker".
However, Russell rubbished this claim while firing a sly dig towards Hamilton's approach to the race while in Melbourne, Australia.
He said: "I don't think there's any luck in it at all.
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"I think it's down to the preparation you put in before the event.
"The changes we made overnight, I knew that was going to be the right direction with the work we did with the team.
"And I believed it was going to be better than the set-up that Lewis opted for.
"I think everybody's got different preferences, I was happy with the direction I took and the work I'm doing with the engineers."
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Shortly after Russell's rebuttal, seven-time champion Hamilton clarified his comments.
He said: "I think people probably, from my choice of words at the weekend… I want to reiterate how great a job George did on the weekend.
"I think the thing I was commenting on is that there's one specific thing that you can change in the suspension that you have to do over Friday night.
"And when you make that change, once you start P3 (final practice), you can't change it for the rest of the weekend, so when you make that change, you're basically rolling the dice – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
"I've done it in the past, sometimes it hasn't worked, sometimes it has, and it worked great for George and he did a great job.
"And the thing that I was lacking in the race was a lot of front end, which that setup gives you, so, in hindsight, that would've been great."
The pair will be hoping for better fortunes at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.
Although Hamilton's preparation may not have been helped following a run-in with a SHARK while he was out surfing.
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