01 June,2011 08:13 AM IST | | AFP
Britain's 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 Brazilian driver Massa, competing for Ferrari and Venezuela's Maldonado, driving for Williams, during Sunday's race won by defending world champion and runaway leader Sebastian Vettel, the German who drives for the Red Bull team.
Lewis Hamilton
The 26-year-old Hamilton, world 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, saying: "Hey guys. I wanted to apologise 4 last weekends (sic) performance & also my comments after, I never meant to offend no1," tweeted Hamilton.
"2 Massa & Maldonado, with the greatest respect I apologise if I offended u. Both of u r fantastic drivers who I regard highly."
