F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Defends Sebastian Vettel After Heavy Media Criticism

Lewis Hamilton has come to the defense of his F1 Drivers’ championship title rival Sebastian Vettel after the Ferrari driver’s inability to handle the pressure of the title race was questioned after yet another error at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.

The German racer has been under constant scrutiny after his title challenge imploded after a series of mistakes after the summer break. Ferrari were favorite to win at the Italian and Singapore Grand Prix, but driver error and poor team strategy meant they handed the advantage to Mercedes.

The gap between Hamilton and Vettel was 24 points going into the summer break and the Ferrari driver was expected to close the gap once the season resumed. The German won the first race after the break in Belgium, but the Mercedes driver has won the next four as Vettel imploded to increase the margin to 67 points in the championship with four races remaining.

Vettel’s latest error came at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday when he collided with Max Verstappen in the opening laps to drop down to last. The Ferrari driver could have potentially challenged for second place, but his over eagerness saw him make a move on the Red Bull in a place where overtaking was not possible, which saw them make contact that compromised Vettel’s race.

The Ferrari team were again ridiculed for yet another poor weekend with everyone apart from the Italian team writing off their chances of winning the title, but Hamilton has leaped to the defense and called for “respect” for his fellow four-time F1 world champion. The British racer stressed on the pressure there is to perform at a high level on a regular basis and believes mistakes are part of the sport.

“I feel the media need to show a little more respect for Sebastian,” Hamilton wrote in a message posted to his Instagram story Tuesday, as quoted on Planet F1. “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."

“It is to be expected that being humans we will make mistakes but it is how we get through them that counts,” the 2018 F1 Drivers’ championship leader added.

Hamilton was not the only Mercedes team member to defend Vettel in the aftermath of the Japanese Grand Prix with team principal Toto Wolff also coming to the defense of the German. Wolff believes the contact between Vettel and Verstappen was not the former’s mistake and said it is a move he had to make once he saw that there was a chance to pass the Red Bull.

“I’m not sure it was his mistake,” Wolff said. “Sebastian recovered well from his starting position and at that stage was a solid fourth. As a racing driver you either have to go for it or not and the door looked open. He gave it a go but a racing incident caused him to drop all the way back.”