Hamilton: Exhaustion, not anger led to interview snub 

Lewis Hamilton insists his decision to skip the immediate post-race interview following the Formula 1 British Grand Prix was down to exhaustion and not anger.

Polesitter Hamilton lost out to Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas at the start before being tagged and turned around by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 3, as he dropped towards the rear of the field on the opening lap. 

Aided by two Safety Car periods, Hamilton turned in a superb recovery drive on his way to salvaging a second-place finish behind chief title rival Vettel, limiting the damage to his championship bid in the process. 

But instead of conducting the post-race interview that precedes the podium, the Briton made his way straight to the drivers’ cool down room. Hamilton explained the snub on social media, adding he lost three kilograms in his charge through the field in hot conditions at Silverstone. 

“I lost nearly three kilograms to get back to the top today for you and my team. I barely had any energy at the end to stand let alone talk,” Hamilton said in an Instagram story. 

“If you can't understand and appreciate that then I fully understand. However it was nothing to do with anger, literally just exhausted both physically and emotionally,” he added.

“Thanks to everyone for the incredible support this weekend, we win and lose together! Onwards and upwards.”

The Mercedes driver later spoke to ex-F1-driver-turned-pundit Martin Brundle following the podium celebrations, where he questioned Ferrari’s “interesting tactics”. 

When asked if he missed the interview because of the first-lap clash with Raikkonen, Hamilton replied: "Not at all. No.

"It's easy for you to sit and watch the race. I sweat my arse off in that race. I pushed absolutely 100, 1000%. I gave every bit of energy I had, I didn't have anything left when I came in.

"People expect you to get out of the car and wave and smile and all that. I gave everything I could, I was struggling to stand. It's so physical nowadays. It's different when you're in the lead and can control the pace. I was coming from last.

"So, I didn't have much to give at that time and needed to take a deep breath. I don't have any problems with Kimi."

Hamilton now trails Vettel by eight points in the championship standings ahead of the next two races in Germany and Hungary before F1’s summer break.