A Formula 1 commentator has hit back at conspiracy theories surrounding Mercedes’ bungled pitstops that cost George Russell victory last weekend in Bahrain. “I’ve read a lot of conspiracy theories that Hamilton and Wolff didn’t want Russell to win, because it would hurt Hamilton’s market value,” said Alexey Popov, the commentator for Russian broadcaster Match TV. “But to be honest, if Toto didn’t want someone to go so fast, he wouldn’t have made the effort he made to pull Russell out of Williams for that race,” he insisted. “Williams didn’t really want to give George away and we don’t know all the details behind that. If they didn’t want to, they would have put the reserve driver in there,” Popov added.

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