What’s eating Lewis Hamilton?

So first you disrespect them and then you follow it up with a ‘sorry’. If it happens once you’ll put it down as a mistake, if it happens again you’ll still give the person concerned the benefit of doubt, but when it keeps repeating itself in a cycle of sorts then you don’t reserve any pity for him, even if he is Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton has a certain love for controversy. The British Formula One star has been involved in controversies which have seen Alonso, Ron Dennis and Dave Ryan all leave McLaren in order to appease him and his father.

The 2009 season saw him get into trouble with the stewards for providing misleading information that led to Jarno Trulli getting a 25-second penalty. There have been more such incidents in a career that has been as noteworthy for his superb driving skills as it has for his penchant to get into trouble.

In a post-race interview regarding his mid-race penalty for causing Felipe Massa’s crash and a pending penalty for clipping Pastor Maldonado during the Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton said, “I’ve been to the stewards five times in the last six races. It’s a joke, a frickin’ joke!”

Seriously, though, we need to wonder what the joke is really all about. Is it funny because Hamilton got pulled up again or because he thought everyone other than him is stupid?

“Massa held me up in qualifying, I got the penalty,” he fumed afterwards. “He turned in to me (during the race), I got the penalty. These drivers are ridiculous. It’s stupid.”

Hamilton made peace with the stewards after the race and then made a separate apology to Massa and Maldonado on his Twitter page.

“2 Massa & Maldonado, with the greatest respect I apologise if I offended u. Both of u r fantastic drivers who I regard highly,” said the Briton, second overall in the championship but 58 points behind Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

It’s so easy, isn’t it? Disrespect them and then say sorry. It now just seems like an act of damage control and neither Massa nor Maldonado are bothered in the least.

After the race, Brazilian Massa, who crashed in the tunnel after a collision at the hairpin, called for Hamilton to face further sanctions.

Maldonado, who had been sixth and heading for his first points in Formula One but ended up with nothing, told Venezuelan television that Hamilton’s race was “not that of a champion.”

And you tend to agree with them. The 2008 world champion added a further explanation to his behaviour in a meeting with British reporters after he had been to see the stewards in Monaco, and said he had no plans to change his style of driving.

“That’s what got me here, it is the way I am. I don’t do it to offend people or to hurt anyone. I do it because I love racing, and I feel like I can do it better than others,” he told Reuters.

“If it ever comes to a stage where I had to pull back and just cruise around, that would not excite me and I probably wouldn’t stay around for that. I am here to race and win. If I have to lose that passion then it blows all racing.”

Hamilton also revealed he had been asked to retire from the race when his car suffered a damaged wing in a multi-car crash that led to the Grand Prix being stopped and then re-started.

“I got hit and my rear wing was hanging off and I was asked to come in and retire and I refused,” he said.

“Then the red flag came out and I am lucky I did not retire as I managed to get a couple of points or it would have been even more damaging to my championship.

“In the first pit-stop I was asked to pit and no-one was there. So all the tension just boiled up,” he added.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time, his fifth win in six races.

With inputs from Reuters