Lewis Hamilton found himself at the center of a bit of controversy following Friday’s practice for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Both Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen took issue with the Mercedes driver's slow laps during FP2, with the incidents occurring on separate occasions.
First, Alonso accused the seven-time world champion of impeding him on a flying lap at Turn 12 - Acque Minerali, telling his Aston Martin race engineer over the radio that Hamilton “thinks he is alone on the track”.
The Spaniard then vented his frustration after the Briton was slow to move off the racing line on the exit of Turn 7, at Tosa.
Over at Red Bull, Verstappen also took aim at Hamilton after he encountered the latter through the Villeneuve chicane.
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On-board footage from the Dutchman’s car showed Verstappen gesturing angrily towards his Mercedes rival, who responded with an apologetic hand wave.
“It’s not the first time,” Verstappen said after a dismal session that he concluded a lowly P7. “Of course, you try to always stay calm about it, but it happened again.
“On the other hand, I don’t want to really talk about it too much because that’s not our issue. Today, we were just severely off pace. That we need to fix.”
Over at Mercedes, Hamilton owned up to his mistake involving his arch-rival who, according to the Briton, was “too frustrated” to accept his apology.
“Jeez. I was on a cool-down lap,” Hamilton explained. “I thought I was well clear, but all of a sudden he was right on me and ultimately it was my mistake.
“I tried to apologise but he was too frustrated.”
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