Hamilton on Sirotkin incident: "It was a disrespectful move"

Lewis Hamilton has claimed the close call between himself and Sergey Sirotkin in Q2 was "a disrespectful move" by the Russian. Approaching a hot-lap, Sirotkin came across a slow-moving Mercedes and veered violently to the left of Hamilton after the Mercedes saw him too late.

Speaking after qualifying, and eventually claiming pole position, Hamilton said he didn't understand what the Williams driver was thinking by overtaking him so late in the lap.

“Everyone was on an out-lap. Me, Sergey and everyone in front of me.

“Valtteri (Bottas) was ahead of me and he was backing off to get his gap so I had to back off. I was making sure I had the gap but then all of a sudden I saw a car coming at high speed and I was like: ‘Oh my God. Is that someone coming on a lap?’

“So I went left, but he was going left. But he wasn’t on a lap, so I don’t know what his thinking was.

“We all know to keep a gap. It was a disrespectful move. I was trying to get out of his way and then he got to the corner and slowed up.

“It was kind of strange. It was completely unnecessary because behind him there was a bit of a space so ultimately his lap and my lap wasn’t great so hopefully he can learn from it.”

Despite the close call, Hamilton is not under investigation for impeding a competitor. He also later had a less severe incident with Kimi Raikkonen who was on a hot lap. No investigation is ongoing with that incident either.