Lewis Hamilton has told Max Verstappen that he is not completing the public interest work handed to him as punishment for swearing at a press conference .
The reigning champion was called before the judges in Singapore after he said he “knew the car was ebe” when answering a question during a drivers’ media session on Thursday about his performance at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He was eventually ordered by the FIA to do some public interest work, and the row over driver swearing became arguably the main topic of conversation during the race weekend in Singapore.
After briefly answering all the questions put to him in the post-qualifying press conference, in which he finished second, Verstappen then gave an impromptu briefing as he walked through the Singapore paddock surrounded by reporters.
Hamilton backed his old title rival during the press conference itself after finishing third in qualifying.
“It’s a bit of a joke, to be honest,” said the Mercedes driver about the penalty.
“This is the pinnacle of sport, mistakes are made. I certainly wouldn’t do that and I hope Max won’t.”
On the other hand, Norris agreed that this was not the right outcome. After joking that Verstappen “deserved it, swearing so…”, the McLaren driver added: “It’s quite unfair, I don’t agree with any of it.”
Hamilton was pleased to improve his team’s performance after looking very poor during training.
The Briton explained that Mercedes could not remove the understeer and admitted that he felt a shocking difference compared to Norris after the third practice.
But several changes made before qualifying had a profound effect on the turnaround in his performance.
“It was like night and day, a big difference,” noted the seven-time champion. [The car] suddenly came to life and I could go where I wanted.”
“It looked really strong during qualifying and I think obviously [Carlos Sainz’s] crash in Q3 made it difficult for all of us to put that last lap together.”
Echoing Norris, who felt he had a stronger lap before the red flag, Hamilton noted that his lap was also nothing special.
“It’s very difficult to get the tires to be perfect and not slip too much, I had a lot of cracks,” he added.
“Through better work, maybe we could have been on the front row with this driver [Norris], but I don’t know if we could have beaten him today or not. But still very, very happy.”
