Past and present drivers back Lewis Hamilton's tactics

A number of Formula One drivers are backing Lewis Hamilton in the wake of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy.

Hamilton was asked to increase his pace by his Mercedes team after he purposely slowed to put pressure on team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg.

Many have questioned Hamilton's tactics, but now a number of drivers, past and present, have leapt to the defence of the three-time champion.

"Tactics are a part of racing as much as anything else and it happens in other sports all the time," said 1979 champion Jody Sheckter..

Quadruple world champion Alain Prost agreed, saying that Hamilton did nothing wrong.

"In the regulations, there is nothing that says you have to drive as fast as you can. It was not dangerous, like braking in the corners, in fact is was good -- it was well done," he said.

"I was afraid that in the last laps we would see something unfair or dirty, but we didn't," he told Canal Plus.

Gerhard Berger also backed Hamilton, despite being a key player in Nico Rosberg's contract negotiations earlier this season.

"It was not unfair," he told Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper. "I would even go further and say that Hamilton was quite fair. He had to play this card, and he could have played it more extremely."

And current Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat said: "I would say that every driver would have done something similar, including Nico.

"So no one should condemn it," the Russian told Austrian television Servus TV.