The Bahrain Grand Prix had everything, edge of the seat racing, on-track tussles, pit lane accidents and a driver’s room comment that lingered long enough for the press to make a big deal out of it.
Hamilton and Verstappen were involved in a wheel-to-wheel exchange while ultimately caused Verstappen to retire because of a puncture.
On entering the driver’s room after the race, Hamilton was heard saying ‘Verstappen is such a dickhead’, and the Brit was bombared with questions regarding that, but Vettel was quick to jump to Hamilton’s rescue.
Can I answer that?” Vettel said.
“It’s not fair – I don’t know what Lewis did, we’ve all been in that situation.
“We fight someone and sometimes we go wheel-to-wheel, and it’s close, and we have a lot of adrenaline going.
“Do you think, if you compare it to football, if you have a microphone on a footballer’s mouth that everything he says is something nice, and it’s a nice message when the guy tackles him and sometimes he fouls him?
“I don’t think it’s justified to give us this kind of shit question and making up a story out of nothing.” he added.
Vettel attributed that ‘dickhead’ statement to adrenaline and pressure, adding that high pressure situations can sometimes make an athlete/racer say such things.
“We are just racing, we are full of adrenaline and we say these things,” Vettel said
“If I hit you in your face, you are not going to tell me, ‘Sebastian, that wasn’t nice’.
“It’s a human reaction, and sometimes I feel it’s all a bit blown up and artificial if we have these questions trying to make something out of nothing.” he added.
Hamilton spoke about how he is already 17 points down after 2 races and that he is always constantly thinking about winning the World Championship while also talking about that ‘incident’ with Verstappen.
“I realised I had to back out, but he continued to come across, and that didn’t leave me any room, so we ended up touching,” he said.
“I was just really grateful that my car wasn’t broken and I could continue.
“That would have really been difficult. My thoughts are on the world championship, and I’ve lost two races now.
“I am 17 points down already after just two races. Hopefully when we go to the next race we will have a better fight with the Ferraris.” Hamilton conlcuded
