Esteban Gutierrez has slammed Lewis Hamilton's behaviour during the Hungarian Grand Prix as the Mercedes driver appeared to gesture toward the Haas driver after lapping him.
Hamilton had a two second lead to team-mate Nico Rosberg before coming across Gutierrez on-track. Struggling to get passed, that gap closed to within half a second before Gutierrez moved aside on the start/finish straight, allowing both Mercedes cars through.
Hamilton was then seen gesturing toward the Mexican as he passed him.
"Not a very respectful move from him I have to say," Gutierrez said after the race. "He should respect all of the competitors.
"You never know, maybe in the future I will be fighting for a championship with him, so he has to respect that."
Gutierrez was investigated for "ignoring multiple blue flags" and later handed a five-second penalty by race stewards, though he insists he wasn't ignoring them: "I didn't ignore them! I simply had two aeroplanes coming from behind, coming very quickly!
"I've no comment on the penalty. As I say, I was aware of the blue flags, but I was really looking for the safest place to let them by."
Gutierrez then made his feelings clear, tweeting: "Being a world champion doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful to your competitors, my friend Lewis Hamilton."
Meanwhile the championship leader claims the gesture wasn't a rude one, adding: "I may have wanted to do that [the middle finger], but I didn't."
