Ferrari ace tells Lewis to grow up

Lewis fury as Vettel hits him in ‘go-kart’ move Hamilton: Be a man now and let’s sort it out

deliberately. The Ferrari driver said: ‘The leader dictates the pace. We were exiting the corner and he was accelerating. Then he braked so much I couldn’t stop in time and I ran into the back of him. That was not necessary. ‘Formula One is for grown-ups. It was the wrong thing to do and he needs to understand that you can’t do that. I drove alongside and we had a little contact but I drove alongside him mostly to raise my hand. ‘I don’t agree with the penalty. If you penalise me then you should penalise both of us.’ Vettel now leads Hamilton by 14 points in the title race with 12

LEWIS HAMILTON labelled Sebastian Vettel a ‘disgrace’ after the German drove into him at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix yesterday

Vettel hit the back of Hamilton’s Mercedes before a safety car restart on lap 19, then pulled alongside and swerved into the British star. But the only punishment Vettel got from the stewards was a 10- second stop-go penalty, enabling the championship leader to finish fourth, just ahead of Hamilton (left) in fifth place.

‘For him to pretty much get away with driving into another driver is a disgrace,’ said Hamilton. ‘He disgraced himself.

‘ If he wants to prove he’s a man we should do it out of the car, face to face. Imagine all the young kids watching this and seeing that behaviour from the four-time world champion. You’d think he would behave better than that.

‘That is the kind of thing you see in go-karts. I really hope that kids don’t see that and think that is the right way. That is not how you drive.’

Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda was similarly scathing, saying: ‘Vettel is a decent guy — normally. I don’t understand what happened. He freaked out. He’s crazy.’

Vettel accused Hamilton of causing the initial collision and denied he had crashed into him