Lewis Hamilton has retracted the claims he made of Ferrari using “interesting tactics” following the British Grand Prix and has accepted Kimi Raikkonen’s apology.
The Mercedes driver was clearly livid after being hit by the Finn on the opening lap of Sunday’s race at Silverstone, although he would still fight back through the field to claim second place behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.
He would storm to the podium straight from parc ferme, bypassing an interview with Martin Brundle, and on Monday, the former McLaren driver turned veteran commentator and pundit revealed what he was told by an FIA official.
“The reason Lewis didn’t talk to me in the Parc Ferme is because he wanted time to go and calm down,” he explained to Sky Sports.
“He was so angry about that [the incident], he didn’t see it as a last-to-second comeback drive, he saw it as somebody torpedoed me off the race track.
“So by the time I came out on the podium, I think he composed himself. I don’t think he wanted to say any words that he’d regret down there.”
Brundle would eventually catch up with Hamilton to speak on the podium, however, despite that assertion of not saying something in the heat of the moment, it was then that the four-time world champion used the “interesting tactics” line citing Vettel’s incident with Valtteri Bottas in France.
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Ferrari brushed off the suggestion, with team boss Maurizio Arrivabene expressing disappointment in Mercedes technical director James Allison, formerly of the Scuderia, for also suggesting some kind of intent in Raikkonen’s action.
Then on Monday, the 33-year-old changed his point of view in reflection of what took place.
“Kimi said sorry and I accept it and we move on,” he said. “It [what happened at Turn 3] was a racing incident and nothing more.
“Sometimes we say dumb s**t and we learn from it.”
Raikkonen would be penalised 10 seconds by the stewards in the race, eventually going on to finish third behind Hamilton.
