Hamilton defends Vettel after criticism of mistakes
LONDON: Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has defended Sebastian Vettel after the Ferrari driver’s title hopes effectively ended in Japan at the weekend.
“I feel the media need to show a little more respect for Sebastian,” Hamilton wrote at the end of an Instagram story from a fashion show in Tokyo.
The Briton stands on the brink of securing his fifth championship after winning six of the past seven races for Mercedes to lead his German rival by 67 points with four races remaining. Vettel tangled with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at Suzuka while trying to pass for third place, a collision that left him fighting back from 19th to sixth after starting eighth on the grid.
Both Ferrari and Vettel have been criticised for glaring strategy errors, such as selecting the wrong tyres in final qualifying in Japan, and a string of mistakes made on track in the heat of battle. Italy’s Autosprint magazine carried a cover this week showing Vettel and the headline ‘Cavallino Mancante’ (Missing Horse) - a play on Ferrari’s familiar ‘Cavallino Rampante’ prancing stallion.
It described Ferrari as lost, lacklustre and victims of too many mistakes of their own making. The Gazzetta dello Sport had also criticised Vettel as a driver “who learns nothing from mistakes”.
“You simply cannot imagine how hard it is to do what we do at our level, for any athlete at the top of their game that is,” said Hamilton. “It is to be expected that being humans we will make mistakes but it is how we get through them that counts.”
Vettel won the first two races and appeared to have the faster car for much of the first half of the season but then fizzled away.