09/04/2018
NEWS STORY
Watching replays of race highlights in the ante room before heading out on to the podium, as he witnessed the second lap clash that was to lead to Max Verstappen's retirement Lewis Hamilton gestured to the screen and said "dickhead".
At the subsequent press conference a Dutch journo chose to pick up the Briton for his remark.
"If my ears are correct, you used the word 'dickhead' after the race concerning Max Verstappen and the overtake and the contact," asked Louis Dekker. "Is that correct? And more importantly, is there an opinion you have on the contact you had with Max in the beginning stages of the race? Who was wrong, or was it just a racing incident?"
"Can I answer that question?" interrupted race winner Sebastian Vettel.
Told that he could, the German continued.
"I think it's not fair... I mean, I don't know what Lewis did," he began. "We've all been in that situation, we fight someone, we go sometimes wheel-to-wheel, it's close and you have a lot of adrenalin going, do you think comparing to football, if you have a microphone on a football player's mouth, that everything he says is something nice and is a nice message when the guy tackles him and maybe sometimes he fouls him or not.
"So I don't think it's justified to give us these kind of shit questions and making up a story out of nothing, if we are just racing and we are full of adrenalin and sometime we say these things. I mean if I hit you in your face, you're not going to say "oh, Sebastian, that wasn't nice". It's a human reaction.
"Sometimes I feel it's all a bit blown up and artificial if we have these questions, trying to make a story out of nothing. So, it's not personal, don't take it personal. So I think we should cut it right there, so now if Lewis can answer," at which point the Briton made his comment about Verstappen's move not being respectful.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Bahrain, here.