A more sombre moment came when Hamilton was asked about the appointment
yesterday of Adrian Sutil to a seat alongside Paul di Resta at Force India.
The relationship between the pair has fractured irrevocably since Hamilton
failed to turn up as a witness at the trial of the German, who was convicted
of assaulting Lotus co-owner Eric Lux with a champagne glass after the 2011
Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton was in the same Shanghai nightclub at the time of the incident, but
opted not to testify. An angry Sutil claimed afterwards that he no longer
considered the Briton a friend and said: “I’m not in contact with him
any more so we have no relationship at the moment. I’ve not seen him, I’ve
not spoken to him. For sure I will meet up with him, but I don’t know what
will happen.”
Hamilton admitted he had been rebuffed in all his efforts to contact Sutil. “I
have emailed him a couple of times,” he said. “I contacted him a
while ago because I heard there was a chance he could get the seat and just
said that I had said a prayer for him, that I really hoped he got the seat
because he deserved it and that I really hoped to see him back in Formula
One.
“On the way here, I found out and congratulated him. I haven’t heard back
from him but I am sure at some stage we will get to talk. I have really been
looking forward to seeing him because I haven’t for a while. I called ages
ago and I got his friend on the phone. Well, he used to be a good friend,
and he kind of intervened.”