Hamilton refuses to take questions after Snapchat coverage

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Lewis Hamilton refused to take questions from written press on Saturday evening at Suzuka in protest of coverage of his behaviour during Thursday's FIA press conference.

The triple world champion was criticised for being disrespectful during the press conference on Thursday as he spent part of the session on his phone and posted an image on Snapchat which read: "This s**t is killing me".

Hamilton later took to Twitter to defend his actions following some criticism of the post, saying he did not mean to be disrespectful. However, following qualifying on Saturday, a smiling Hamilton took his time before his written press conference, and when it was put to him it appeared he had something to say, replied: "Yeah, I do and the smiles on your faces will probably be no longer.

"I’m not actually here to answer your questions, I’ve decided. With the utmost respect - there are many of you here that are super supportive of me and those of you [that are] hopefully know that I know who they are - but there are others, unfortunately, that often take advantage of certain things. The other day was a super-lighthearted thing and if you thought that I was disrespectful, it was honestly not the intention, it was a little bit of fun.

"But what was more disrespectful was what was then written worldwide and I’m just kind of in a position where - unfortunately there are some people here and it’s not them that have done it - unfortunately the decision I will take affects those that are super supportive. So that’s why I say with the utmost respect, but I don’t really plan on sitting at many more times for these kinds of things. So, my apologies, and I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your weekend."

Hamilton - who was beaten to pole position by Nico Rosberg by 0.013s on Saturday - then walked out of the media session. Drivers are not obliged to speak to written media outside of official FIA press conferences, with Hamilton and Rosberg - who did his own session as normal - having both been in the FIA's post-qualifying press conference.

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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.