Lewis Hamilton insisted that he had no doubts that Mercedes team-mate George Russell would race cleanly in their battle at the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday. (More Motorsport News)
Hamilton finished the race in fourth, one place ahead of Russell, the seven-time world champion's best finish since winning the Belgian Grand Prix back in July.
The pair started fifth and sixth respectively, but swapped places on the opening lap, before Russell regained the initiative on Lap 14.
They each moved up a place through the pit stop phase, with Max Verstappen losing ground by serving two 10-second penalties, and Hamilton then closed in on Russell.
Hamilton shadowed Russell before eventually making the move stick into Turn 1 on Lap 65, climbing up into fourth position.
“It’s pretty straightforward, I don't think either of us are silly,” Hamilton said on his battle with his team-mate.
“George is really smart, and is fair, and he's just really good at where he places his car, and I think for me too.
"So when [the team] comes on the radio and says, keep it clean, it's like, ‘of course.’
"It's not really different to when you're fighting anyone else, except for it is your team mate, so you have to be double careful because you both want to finish.”
“It was fun, I had fun today,” Hamilton added. “I had a good start, I had a really bad first stint, took too much front wing out of the car, I had massive, massive understeer.
“After my stop, I was able to rectify it, and then after that I had a much better pace, and I was able to push and keep going.
"We stopped a little bit early as well, compared to what I had planned and stuff. We got good points.”
Hamilton will, however, hope to do better in Brazil this time around, having scored more points (185) than any other driver on the current grid around the Interlagos circuit.
Russell, meanwhile, ensured Mercedes claimed a double top-five finish and was happy with his finish after crashing in FP2 on Friday.
“I mean the pace looked pretty strong in the first stint but when I came out the pits behind Piastri, I pulled out down the straight and my front left flap just collapsed,” Russell said.
“I hit this bump so that probably cost me three or four tenths for the remainder of the race, so it was tricky to hold on for 40 laps. P5, probably would have taken that after Friday.”
