SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium —
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso eased off to
avoid a prolonged war of words on Monday following their acrimonious collision
in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
اضافة اعلان
Mercedes’
seven-time world champion and his one-time McLaren team-mate crashed on the
opening lap with Hamilton forced to retire after an airborne ride over his
rival’s Alpine car.
In the heat of
the moment the veteran Spaniard blasted the British driver as “an idiot”.
Hamilton
revisited the incident on social media, writing: “First I want to apologies to
my fans and especially those who came out to support me.
“After almost 30
years of racing, the feeling left from a mistake cuts just as deep as the first.
“My team, who
work so hard, deserved more.”
Alonso, 41, was
also more composed in his comments after the race and distanced himself from
the impact of his original outburst on team radio when he said: “What an idiot!
Closing the door from the outside.
“I mean, we had a
mega-start, but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.”
Hamilton accepted
full blame for the collision but was clearly put out by Alonso’s initial fury.
He suggested he
had intended to speak to the Spaniard until he “heard what he said. I know
that’s how things feel in the heat of the moment, but it’s nice to know how he
feels about me.”
Alonso admitted
“I was angry”, adding: “The radio, anyway, when you talk, you talk to your
engineer and to your team.”
‘Won’t stop pushing’
“It’s a shame that sometimes everything is broadcasted, because if it’s
broadcasted, it is what you say now (in the moment), this (right now) is how
you behave in the media.”
“When you’re
talking on the radio, it’s only a comment to your team, normally.”
“I was frustrated
there, for sure,” he continued.
“Every time we
started in the first couple of rows of the grid there is something going on,
unfortunately, and I felt that way.
“But, you know,
it was a normal incident, and unfortunately Lewis had to retire the car after
the incident.”
Alonso was seen
wagging a finger at Hamilton on lap two before he settled down and finished
fifth in the race.
The two have had
a colorful history since being teammates at
McLaren in 2007, Hamilton’s rookie
season, when they fell out. Alonso left the team after one year of a three-year
contract.
The crash capped
a disappointing weekend for the 37-year-old Hamilton who had qualified 1.8
seconds adrift of pace-setting world champion Max Verstappen who won the race
from 14th on the grid, after taking a penalty, for Red Bull.
“We’re not where
we want to be,” the British driver, still searching for his first win of the
season, said.
“But we won’t
stop pushing until we get to where we know where we belong. Sometimes this is
life, it happens, but it’s not how we fall, it’s how we get up.
“I will be
working as hard as I can to come back stronger.”
Alonso meanwhile
also enjoyed poking fun at Ferrari, with whom he experienced strategy errors,
notably when bidding to win his third drivers’ title in 2010.
Asked about the
Italian team’s curious strategy in Belgium, which saw Charles Leclerc finish
sixth, he said he was not surprised.
“No, not so much.
Ferrari has been doing strange things — and that was just another strange thing.”
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