Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton has criticised a "disrespectful" approach from Williams' Sergey Sirotkin after their close call during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Sirotkin was on his out lap when he came across Hamilton during the second part of qualifying and had to avoid the World Champion, hampering his preparations for his hot lap.
Hamilton had been heading to the pits on an in-lap having completed his hot lap earlier on as inclement conditions threatened to hit the Interlagos circuit.
“Everyone was on an out-lap – me, Sergey and everyone in front of me," said Hamilton, who went on to take pole position.
"When you are on an out-lap, Valtteri was ahead of me and he was backing off to get his gap so I had to back off.
"I was making sure I had the gap but then all of a sudden I saw a car coming at high speed and I was like: ‘Oh my God. Is that someone coming on a lap?’ So I went left, but he was going left.
But he wasn’t on a lap, so I don’t really know what his thinking was really, with it, because respectfully, between all the drivers, we all do respect… you know, I could have easily tried to overtake Valtteri or Valtteri whoever was in front of him.
"We all know to keep a gap. It was a disrespectful move. I was trying to get out of his way and then he got to the corner and slowed up to utilise the gap but then also I don’t know whether to slow my lap up or not.
"It was kind of strange. It was completely unnecessary because behind him there was a bit of a space so ultimately his lap and my lap wasn’t great so helpfully he can learn from it."
The Russian driver was less concerned with the incident and didn't feel any ill-will towards Hamilton, acknowledging his own out-lap was messy whilst trying to prepare his tyres for his run.
Sirotkin said he noticed the Mercedes driver did not see him until the last moment and made an effort to give him the racing line before having to avoid the world champion.
"I mean, to be honest, nothing I’m too angry with him for," added Sirotkin. "I needed to push that lap to get my tyres.
"It was all a bit unplanned where we were and we could not put the tyres in the blankets between the runs so we were massively down on temps. Basically, that out-lap was as quick as my any other lap, almost.
"I was properly flat out, I was coming through the very quick left-hander there, and he was stopping to prepare his lap.
"I went on the left, not even hoping that he would let me go because he was so slow and I was coming so quickly and then in the last minute he saw me and tried to avoid me, he gave me the racing line but I was already on the left so I had to pass through the grass and basically my lap was ruined after that.
"But he’s champion, he knows what he’s doing and didn’t change my position at the end of the day."
