"One of the fairest and cleanest drivers"- F1 pundit calls Fernando Alonso's comments about Lewis Hamilton 'inaccurate and unfair'

After Lewis Hamilton was called an 'idiot' by Fernando Alonso for crashing into the Spaniard on the opening lap of the 2022 F1 Belgian GP, former F1 driver Martin Brundle defended Hamilton and called the comments unfair.

The seven-time world champion started in P4 and found himself wheel-to-wheel with Alonso by the time the pair had reached the end of the Kemmel straight. Hamilton, however, did not leave enough space for his former teammate and ended up colliding before subsequently retiring for the want of an uncharacteristic error.

Alonso sounded off on the radio, accusing Hamilton of being incapable of racing unless he started at the top of the grid, as he has done for the majority of his career with Mercedes.

In his column for Sky Sports, Brundle batted for his compatriot when he discussed the incident between the two world champions, where he wrote:

“Mercedes just couldn’t switch their tyres on in qualifying but would undoubtedly be better in a warm dry race. Lewis Hamilton didn’t get a chance to find out because of a rare error into the Les Combes chicane when he simply pinched into the side of Fernando Alonso whilst trying to go around the outside, and flying through the air.”

Brundle went on to add:

“Lewis said he couldn’t see Fernando in his blind spot but frankly, he was bound to be there somewhere, and the Spaniard tried his best to stay to the inside and give space. Lewis saw the footage and immediately put his hand up and correctly accepted full responsibility.”

The Sky pundit then called Lewis Hamilton one of the fairest and cleanest drivers in the history of the sport. Brundle then cast his mind back to the 2021 Sao Paolo GP when the Briton overcame a 25-place grid penalty on a sprint weekend to win the feature race. He wrote:

“Fernando’s radio comments, albeit fuelled by anger and adrenaline, about Lewis only being able to win from the front were in my opinion wholly inaccurate and unfair. Lewis is one of the fairest and cleanest drivers in the history of F1, he hasn’t needed to resort to too many professional fouls given his relentless speed, and just cast your mind back to Brazil last year to remember how he can scythe through the field. Twice.”

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FIA stewards warn Lewis Hamilton for disobeying medical protocols following his 2022 F1 Belgium GP crash

Lewis Hamilton was warned by FIA stewards at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps after refusing to visit the medical tent following his opening lap clash at the 2022 F1 Belgian GP.

The seven-time world champion's tedious race weekend was brought to an abrupt end after a collision with Alpine's Fernando Alonso launched him up in the air momentarily. Hamilton's Mercedes W13 sustained major damage and could not even finish the opening lap of the race.

While Alonso berated his former teammate on the radio, the stewards took umbrage with Hamilton for not reporting to the medical tent, as is the protocol after an on-track incident that results in a DNF. The FIA released a statement that read as follows:

“The stewards received a report from the race director that driver [Lewis] Hamilton refused to visit the Event Medical Service following his crash on Lap 1, where the Medical Warning Light threshold was exceeded, and only did so after the race director informed the team that further action could be taken if he did not.”

Lewis Hamilton did accept blame for the incident with Fernando Alonso but has not commented on the warning issued by the stewards at the time of writing this.