<< Return to the news list

Vettel and Horner defend Hamilton after Bahrain

Published on 09 Apr 2018 14:04
7
By: Rob Veenstra

Sebastian Vettel and Christian Horner on Sunday defended Lewis Hamilton after the Bahrain grand prix. Following a clash with Max Verstappen, world champion Hamilton called the Dutch driver a "d******d".

"It's a human reaction," said race winner and championship leader Vettel, intervening as a reporter asked Hamilton about the crude insult. "I feel it's all a bit blown up and artificial if we have these sh*t questions, trying to make a story out of nothing. I think we should cut it right there," said the Ferrari driver.

And interestingly, even though it was his driver under verbal attack by Hamilton, Red Bull boss Horner also defended Hamilton. "The fight was tough. Max is an aggressive racer, Lewis is an aggressive racer. People turn on the TV to see how their fight turns out," he said.

At present, the fight is going well for German Vettel. Not since 1982 has a driver not won the championship after winning the opening two races of a season. But Vettel dismissed the significance of that statistic, and Toto Wolff agreed that Mercedes and Red Bull are very much still in the hunt. "The pendulum will swing from team to team depending on the race track," he said in Bahrain.

Finally, French racing driver Adrien Tambay defended Kimi Raikkonen, after many accused the Finn of not taking a badly broken leg sustained in a pitstop incident by one of his mechanics seriously enough. "It was certainly not Kimi's fault," Tambay told RMC. "He simply followed the instructions of the lollipop." (GMM)

mbmwe36

Posts: 533

People were up in arms about him not even checking in the mechanic he ran over when he walked back from the car. I think it's fair criticism in the sense that decent thing to do would be to check on the guy and apologise. Even if he wasn't really at fault, I think most people would still show con... [Read more]

1
Apr 9 2018 - 20:48

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel Ferrari Mercedes

Replies (7)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Did he really say d**khead? Silly boy. Mind, I agree with them: it was a racing incident, they were equally much at fault. The only regrettable thing was that Max had to retire from the race because of it. Lets leave it at that.

As for the last bit: ... What has Kimi done to deserve scorn for that? I havent heard much from it, but he stopped pretty instantly as soon as he found out that something was wrong.
- + 0
- Apr 9 2018 - 18:00
- Pauli
  
  Posts: 140
  I think Kimi gets critic when he replayed to media with his normal honest style. Basically he was commenting that he doesn't know what exactly had happened. But he also added that it was probably broken leg and he hoped all the best. But journalist like to write controversial stories and first part of Kimi's post race interview was an easy target to attack.
  + 0
  
  Apr 9 2018 - 18:18
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  In that case... Well, journalism as usual then.
  + 0
  
  Apr 9 2018 - 19:22
- mbmwe36
  
  Posts: 533
  People were up in arms about him not even checking in the mechanic he ran over when he walked back from the car. I think it's fair criticism in the sense that decent thing to do would be to check on the guy and apologise. Even if he wasn't really at fault, I think most people would still show concern in that situation.
  + 1
  
  Apr 9 2018 - 20:48
denis1304

Posts: 284
Max will need to learn fast, Hamilton is last racer to just move over in ditch, especially this early in championship
- + 0
- Apr 9 2018 - 19:06
Smiler121

Posts: 53
Pretty confident if somebody tried to squeeze me off the track like that I'd struggle to limit my expletives! Nice to see Vettel & Horner being grown up about it rather than sticking the boot in :-)
- + 0
- Apr 9 2018 - 22:12
ajpennypacker

Posts: 2,475
It was a racing incident. I don't think most people think it was anything other than that. The only d***head was Raikkonen, not for running over a member of his out crew, that was not his fault and everyone knows that. The problem is how he reacted to it, going angrily into the garage walking past his pitcrew member on the floor with his leg broken in two pieces. I haven't read a single heartfelt expression compassion or support. I have read them from others, including Vettel, who was somewhat downcast in the interviews.
- + 1
- Apr 10 2018 - 01:27