Hamilton says sorry for Monaco comments

Lewis Hamilton apologised yesterday for criticising fellow drivers Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado after colliding with both men during last weekend’s incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix.

Hamilton collided with Massa, competing for Ferrari and Maldonado, driving for Williams, during Sunday’s race won by defending world champion Sebastian Vettel, of Red Bull.

Hamilton, champion in 2008, was given a drive-through penalty for each offence, the second taken retrospectively as a 20-second time penalty after the race ended. Both Massa and Maldonado were knocked out of the race by the incidents.

Hamilton blasted the stewards in comments he later retracted and slammed Massa and Maldonado as “ridiculous”.

However, the 26-year-old McLaren driver used his Twitter feed to try to clear the air with his fellow competitors yesterday, saying: “Hey guys. I wanted to apologise 4 last weekends (sic) performance & also my comments after, I never meant to offend no1,” tweeted Hamilton.

After seeing the stewards following the Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton told BBC television he had been called before them five times in six races and described it as “a joke”, adding he felt he was picked on regularly “maybe, because I am black!”