Lando Norris has denied being pressured into apologising for comments he made about Lewis Hamilton after the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Last Sunday at Portimao, the Mercedes driver moved ahead of Michael Schumacher to stand alone with the most wins in Formula 1 history at 92.
Asked about Hamilton’s achievement, Norris said he was “happy for him” but “it doesn’t mean anything to me, really. He’s in a car which should win every race, basically. He has to beat one or two other drivers, that’s it”.
On Tuesday, the Briton then took to social media to apologise for what he called “careless” remarks and elaborated more on Friday at Imola.
“They were more the comments about Lewis and him reaching his 92 wins,” Norris clarified after also being critical of Lance Stroll following their Portugal clash.
“I have a lot of respect for [that] and I just didn’t choose those words to put it into context.
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“I don’t know if he knew about it at the time but I never mean to say something like that in a bad way or put any bad light on him at all.
“I respect everything he’s done to achieve what he’s done. It’s incredible no matter what.
“It’s just the way I put it was just not the way I wanted to put it across. I said what I said, I apologised and I’ve just got to move on.”
Given the opinion he gave does carry a bit of weight based on Mercedes’ dominance since 2014, Norris was asked if there had been any external pressure to apologise.
“It was all done off my own back,” the McLaren driver replied. “No one pressured me, it wasn’t something that anyone even said, it wasn’t something that many people even noticed.
“I woke up in the morning and I looked on social media and there was a lot more bad comments than good about the things I said. I never mean any of it to be put in that way or taken out of context in a bad way, especially against Lewis.
“I saw how it was going down and I felt bad because it’s not the person I am to put shame on anyone or not have the respect for such a driver.
“So I made the decision in the morning to put out the tweet and just issue my apology and message Lewis also at the same time to set things straight.”