Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso eased off to avoid a prolonged war of words on Monday following their acrimonious collision in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ seven-time world champion and his one-time McLaren team-mate crashed on the opening lap with Hamilton forced to retire after an airborne ride over his rival’s Alpine car.

In the heat of the moment the veteran Spaniard blasted the British driver as “an idiot”.

Hamilton revisited the incident on social media, writing: “First I want to apologise to my fans and especially those who came out to support me.

“After almost 30 years of racing, the feeling left from a mistake cuts just as deep as the first.

“My team, who work so hard, deserved more.”

Click here for full story

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.