Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso made contact on lap one of the Belgian GP after which the Alpine driver called him an ‘idiot’.
Hamilton and Alonso shared a fierce rivalry back when the former made his F1 debut. The two were teammates at McLaren for a year and finished level on points after which Alonso left the outfit. Since then, we haven’t really seen them be involved in many tussles.
Last weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, the old rivals came together for an intense first-lap battle. Hamilton’s car made contact with Alonso’s Alpine and was launched into the air. He initially continued driving but was forced to retire shortly thereafter. Alonso’s reaction on the team radio was that of exasperation as he called the 7-time World Champion an ‘idiot’.
Alonso on the Hamilton crash to Sky Sports F1:
“I was surprised and for sure…he now saw the incident and he takes the responsibility which is obviously very nice from him.
“It was a lap one incident, nothing really to say there”#F1 #BelgianGP
— Autosport (@autosport) August 28, 2022
Even though Hamilton and Alonso made up, plenty of people including Sebastian Vettel did not like how the Alpine driver reacted initially. Leading up to this weekend’s Dutch GP, the four-time World Champion shared his thoughts on the matter.
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Sebastian Vettel jumps to defend Lewis Hamilton after Fernando Alonso mistake
Vettel and Hamilton had a rivalry of their own back when the 35-year-old drove for Ferrari. They had a fair share of on-track issues but in spite of that, Vettel went on to call Hamilton one of the ‘fairest drivers’ in F1 today.
The now Aston Martin driver acknowledges the fact that people get carried away on team radios during high pressure situations mid races. However, he insists that drivers have to be more careful with what they say. This is because these messages are publicly broadcasted and millions watch it.
“It’s an emotional reaction,” Vettel said. “If you are in this situation, you are worried that you may have damage to the car. And that could be the end of your race. But we are aware of the fact that radios are public and I think that was a very disrespectful comment.”
“Lewis is one of the fairest drivers on the grid,” he added. “I don’t think he intends to be unfair and made a mistake. We all make mistakes, even Fernando makes mistakes sometimes.”
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