Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton are two of the most amazing frenemies in F1. Despite their heated moments while fighting for championships, they always stood up for each other. One such moment was back in 2018, when Vettel was still in a title fight with Hamilton.
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At the 2018 Bahrain GP, Lewis Hamilton had a major racing incident with Max Verstappen. Hamilton in the cooldown room post-race called Max Verstappen a “d*ckhead” for the ambitious overtake. Upon this, the media questioned him about the same, much to his friend and rival Sebastian Vettel‘s displeasure.
The 4-time champion stood up for Lewis and answered the question of defending the Briton’s comments. Vettel said, “I think it’s not fair. I don’t know what Lewis [Hamilton] did. I am sure he didn’t, you know we have all been in that situation [when] we fight someone and we go sometimes wheel to wheel and it’s close and we have a lot of adrenaline going.”
2018 🇧🇭#BahrainGP
Verstappen’e küfür ettiği için tepki gören Hamilton’ı Vettel savunuyor
🗣️Vettel: “Bu soruyu ben cevaplayabilir miyim? Bu yaptığınız adil değil. Lewis ne yaptı bilmiyorum ancak hepimiz bu durumu yaşıyoruz. Birileriyle mücadele ediyoruz.”1⃣pic.twitter.com/Pm8V1aHx4q— 🇹🇷F1 Efsane Geçişler (@F1efsane) March 22, 2022
“Do you think comparing to football, if you have a microphone on a football player’s mouth, that everything he says is nice? And it’s a nice message when the guy tackles him or maybe sometimes he fouls him or not.”
Vettel justified that F1 drivers have a rush of adrenaline during racing and even after the race. Thus, it’s not fair to ask such questions as to why a driver used bad words.
Vettel concluded, “If we are just racing, we are full of adrenaline, sometimes we say these things.”
Read More: Lewis Hamilton Lived Up to His Word to Sebastian Vettel Years After Season of Heated F1 Rivalry
This was a nice moment when Vettel defended Hamilton, showing their camaraderie. It wasn’t a great race for Hamilton, as he had to recover after his early shunt with Verstappen. The Mercedes man clinched a podium while Vettel won the Bahrain race.
What happened between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in Bahrain 2018?
Max Verstappen overtook Hamilton going into Turn 1 in Sakhir and had contact with the Mercedes’ front wing. It compromised both their races, but mainly caused a left-rear puncture for Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver had to limp his car to the pits and eventually, he retired his car from the race. While Hamilton went on a recovery job to get back to the podium. The Briton was involved in the title fight with Vettel, who was having a splendid race.
After the race, Lewis reacted to the Verstappen overtake in the cooldown room. Seeing the footage of the overtake, Hamilton called Verstappen with the abusive word.
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After investigation, a suspected electrical engine issue put pay to Daniel's #BahrainGP, while Max was forced to retire after sustaining too much damage from his early puncture 😔
Safe to say China can't come soon enough… pic.twitter.com/HWAoDUI8GH
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 8, 2018
The Red Bulls had a disaster of a Bahrain GP with a double-DNF result. Verstappen’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo also retired from the race, due to a power failure.
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Watch This Story: Breaking down the insane title battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain GP under relentless pressure from Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas. Though the German surely earned some brownie points for defending his rival Lewis on the Verstappen overtake saga.