Lewis Hamilton Comes Out Clean on His Apparent Dig at Sergio Perez

A dominant Max Verstappen won in Mexico. But post-race celebrations suggested it was the third-place Sergio Perez who finished first. The Mexican was treated like a deity throughout the weekend by his home fans. And disrespecting a deity results in heavy criticism. Just ask Lewis Hamilton.

In his post-race interview, Hamilton talked about his battle with Perez in the race.

“When you’ve got Checo on your tail, you know the car is quick.”

However, his remarks were misinterpreted as him taking a dig on and disrespecting Sergio Perez, for which the Briton soon started being criticised.

But Hamilton posted an explanation for his comments on social media to clear things up.

“Just want to make sure people don’t read what I was saying wrong yesterday,” posted Hamilton on Monday.

“I have a lot of respect for Sergio and think he’s doing a great job in his new team. He’s improved so much this season and I know how hard it is to progress with a new team, it takes time. My comment was simply that following another car in Mexico is the hardest thing due to the low drag we all have. That’s why there is very little overtaking.

“However, he was able to follow so closely which highlights just how much more downforce they were able to carry. Big up Checo for keeping it clean.”

This should calm down most of Checo’s and Red Bull fans for whom Hamilton is ‘Enemy No.1’ at this stage of the season.

Lewis Hamilton couldn’t match the Red Bulls but showed experience

The Mercedes driver went into the race with a desperately needed win to continue his battle with rival Max Verstappen.

But the 36-year-old learnt quickly that neither was he getting close to Max Verstappen nor was his teammate Valtteri Bottas going to help him in any way.

Although Mercedes had qualified in P1 and P2, a crash with Daniel Ricciardo in the opening lap took Valtteri Bottas out to the back.

And since that moment, Mercedes didn’t get back in the race.

On one end, Verstappen kept pulling away from a much slower Hamilton and on the other end, Bottas failed to break into the Top 10 for the entirety of the race.

Hamilton was fighting two battles, one in which he was fighting for a win and in the other, he was defending against homeboy Sergio Perez.

So on top of that, if instead of being commended to earn a respectable P2, Hamilton found himself on the wrong end of Perez’s faithful.

But, now that he’s provided an explanation, it should calm the angry fans down so Hamilton can focus on next week’s crucial race in Brazil.

Also Read: Ex-F1 Driver Chides Bottas & Questions His ‘Heart’ to Hamilton at Mercedes