Hamilton has 'greater respect' for Vettel since 2017 Baku clash

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Lewis Hamilton insists there are no lingering bad feelings toward title rival Sebastian Vettel over their clash at Baku last year.

Ten months ago, Vettel banged wheels with Hamilton after claiming that the Mercedes driver had 'brake tested' him behind a safety car. Vettel was handed a penalty for the incident. It cost him a chance of winning the race when Hamilton subsequently hit problems.

At the time, a furious Hamilton labelled the Ferrari driver a "disgrace". But looking back on the clash now, the Briton was much more relaxed about it.

"It's good to see fire within the people that you're competing with," he said. "It's also good to see that they're not perfect, because I guess nobody's perfect."

"We all make mistakes but it's more so how people handle it and how they progress is what you can really learn from."

Far from holding a grudge about what happened, Hamilton seemed to be even more admiring of Vettel as a result of the on-track outburst.

"The respect has grown, actually, a considerable amount since then," he said. "I'm sure it will continue.

Hamilton hopes to 'grow, excel and make history' with Mercedes

"He's continued to progress as the champion that he is. How he presents himself, how he speaks - he continues to grow. And the words that he uses today."

Hamilton's had a difficult start to his title defence. While Vettel has won twice, Hamilton himself has yet to make it to the top step of the podium in the first three races of 2018.

"The others have definitely stepped up," he said. "We've made a step forward but they have made a bigger leap.

"It is small, small percentages that are going to make the difference. We are still the same team that has won in previous years. I think we really can battle out these guys.

"If we are able to pull through and deliver as we have in previous years it would be the biggest achievement this team will have accomplished."

He certainly didn't think that the teams' new W09 had any significant deep-rooted issues holding it back.

"We believe it's sound," he told Sky Sports News. "The car has been great. But in the last race it wasn't performing the way it normally does.

"I think the tyres came into play," he mused. "If we can get on top of the tyre situation we will be able to show the true performance of the car."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.