Lewis Hamilton wasn't in the mood to discuss being called an "idiot" by Fernando Alonso after the Mercedes man's Belgian Grand Prix was ended on the opening lap.
Starting fourth on the grid, a place behind his former McLaren teammate, the British driver got off to a flier as both he and Alonso surged past second-placed Sergio Perez. With the pair fighting for position as they went into Les Combes, Hamilton tried to go round the outside of the Alpine, only to collide into his rival.
The impact sent Hamilton's W13 car into the air, and the damage caused soon forced him to come into the pits and retire. Despite losing places, Alonso recovered to finish sixth - and was then elevated to fifth after a time penalty was dished out to Charles Leclerc.
But in the initial aftermath of the accident the Spaniard had made his feeling clear, brandishing Hamilton an "idiot" over team radio. He then scathingly added: "This guy only knows how to drive when he starts in first place."
In his post-race press conference, Hamilton made no attempt to alleviate the blame, and apologised for his momentary lack of awareness: "Having looked back at the footage, he was in my blind spot and I didn’t leave him enough space so it was my fault today. Just so sorry to the team."
Sky Sports reporter Rachel Brookes then tried to push the seven-time world champion further, asking him about Alonso's radio comments. Hamilton however, cut in before she could finish the question.
"It doesn’t really matter what he said," interrupted the driver, with no shortage of angst. "Like I said, it was my fault. I couldn’t see him actually, he was right in my blind spot."
After reviewing the incident, race stewards decided it did not merit further punishment for either driver. However, Hamilton then risked the wrath of officials by refusing to attend the medical centre afterwards, and was duly reprimanded by the stewards.
Hamilton and Alonso were infamous rivals when paired together in 2007, with McLaren agreeing to release the two-time world champion from his contract at the end of the campaign. However, the pair have since patched up their differences.
The saga compounded a frustrating weekend of Hamilton, who arrived in Spa with renewed hopes of a race win after five successive podium finishes. However, he was markedly off the pace in both practice and qualifying.
But despite finishing seventh in Q3, his hopes were boosted by six drivers, among them Max Verstappen and Leclerc, being dealt grid penalties. He and Alonso subsequently rose three places each to third and fourth respectively.
Eventually though, the day belonged to Verstappen, who came from 14th on the grid to take the chequered flag 18 seconds ahead of teammate Perez. The Red Bull man's searing pace was a feature of the weekend, and he wasted little time in negating his grid penalty as he hunted down pole sitter Carlos Sainz.
