26/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton hits out at rival Max Verstappen following the Dutchman's outbursts in Hungary.
It wasn't only his poor engineer Gianpiero Lambiase who got it in the neck last weekend, post-race the three-time world champion laid into the media also, telling them to **** off.
This, according to seven-time world champion Hamilton is not acceptable behaviour from what should been as an F1 role model.
"You have to be a team leader, a team member," said Hamilton. "Maybe not so much a team leader," he continued, "just always remember you are a teammate with lots of people and you have to act like a world champion."
Asked to explain what he meant, the Briton laughed: "That's a good question. Not like it was last weekend!"
Other than Verstappen's outburst, Hamilton is also miffed at the incident in which he was hit by the Dutchman's car. However, his frustration isn't so much directed at the Red Bull driver but the stewards claim that he (Hamilton) was "predominantly to blame" for the clash.
Asked if he was surprised by the claim, he said: "Yes, very much so. I was really, really surprised by it.
"I think already I was very relaxed about the situation," he continued. "Just saying 'look, it was just a racing incident, let's just move on'. But considering one car was in control and one car was not in control at the time. Obviously when all the wheels are locked you are not in control. And if you look at the replay, at the end of the whole move I'm very, very far from the apex, so there's a lot of room on the right hand side. So I was very, very surprised at the stewards.
"I don't know who typed it up," he added, "but probably that'll be a question when I speak to them at some stage."
Asked if he has spoken to Verstappen about the incident, he said: "We didn't talk afterwards. We went to the stewards and that's it. Yeah we've not had a talk.
"I don't know if we will, if we get time. Maybe we'll talk in the drivers' parade this weekend, maybe. I've not felt like there's necessarily a need to, but there might be something he wants to say. But we didn't get the time to do it."
Check out our Friday gallery from Spa here.