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Hamilton had a fraught weekend in Monaco

Lewis Hamilton has used Twitter to apologise to Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado, and thank his fans for their support.

Lewis sent a series of four messages tonight in his trademark shorthand style:

“Hey guys. I wanted to apologise 4 last weekends performance & also my comments after, I never meant to offend no1.”

“I would also like to say thank u 2 everyone on here, 4 their positive messages & also 2 the angry messages. I can respect them both.”

“2 Massa & Maldonado, with the greatest respect I apologise if I offended u. Both of u r fantastic drivers who I regard highly.”

“2 my fans lost & my fans won, I wish u nothing but love & happiness. God Bless u. Onwards & upwards, Montreal next. Lewis”

Following yesterday’s race Hamilton apologised to the stewards after being called to see them in the light of his controversial BBC interview.

The McLaren mechanics rush to fix Hamilton's wing before the restart

Sergio Perez was released from hospital in Monaco today after being kept in for observation for two nights.

Meanwhile sources have confirmed to this blog that the FIA accident data recorder on the Sauber logged a lateral impact of 80G, believed to be the highest seen in F1 since the system was introduced. His helmet showed no external markings, while the headrest foam did its job.

“I feel okay,” said Perez. “I have little bit of pain in my leg and in my neck, but this comes from muscles and is nothing to worry about. On Sunday I still felt a bit dizzy, but that is all. Thank God I’m healthy and I’m looking forward to being back in the car soon.

“They treated me very well in the hospital. I want to thank the staff for this, and also want to thank everyone else who was worrying about me – the people from the team who came to see me and other visitors as well.

“My family has also been with me. I want to say thank you for all the messages I received. I’m very grateful for all the support and feel sorry for not having replied to all of the messages. There were so many and my phone very quickly ran out of battery.”

Perez says he has only hazy memories of what happened.

“I remember how I started Q3 and I also remember some of the accident. For the time being I am missing some memories about what happened after the first impact and the rescue procedures. I don’t really know what caused the accident. My race engineer told me there was no problem with the car. I can only guess that I might have been a bit offline or braked on a bump.”

Perez expects to be driving in Canada, but first he will have to be passed fit by the FIA.

McLaren says that Lewis Hamilton has apologised to the FIA Stewards for his controversial remarks after the Monaco GP.

The move will have gone some way to heading off any future action for bringing the sport into disrepute.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who left the paddock soon after the race, was quoted in a team press release as follows: “Immediately after the race he was very down, and during a post-race TV interview he made a poor joke about his penalties that referenced Ali G. However, I’m pleased to say that he chose to return to the track a little while later to speak to the stewards about the joke. They accepted his explanation.”

Meanwhile the full transcript of Hamilton’s conversation with the BBC’s Lee McKenzie is as follows:

Q: Lewis, a pretty eventful day and I imagine a disappointing day for you. Have you just been at the stewards?  What’s the latest?

LH: “Hey, you know what? I’ve been to the stewards, out of six races I’ve been to the stewards five times. It’s a joke. It’s an absolute frickin’ joke.”

Q: You’re obviously very aggrieved. Describe in your eyes what happened with Massa, and at the end there with Maldonado.

LH: “You know, you can’t overtake here and very, very rarely do you ever get an opportunity. I was quite a lot quicker than Massa. I went up the inside and the guy turned so early and just, turned into me. And I tried to go over the kerb to avoid him and we’re stuck together, and so, I mean, it was just… And of course I get the penalty, which is usual.  He held me up in qualifying and I got the penalty. He turned into me and I got the penalty. And then I went up the inside of Maldonado, and you can see on the screen he turned in a good car length too early to stop me from overtaking him and crashed into me. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. These drivers are absolutely frickin’ ridiculous. It’s stupid.”

Q: Why do you think you’re magnetic to the stewards? You obviously feel that you’re being targeted.

LH: “Maybe it’s ‘cos I’m black. [laughs] That’s what Ali G says!  I don’t know.”

Q: Just explain how much this is hurting your championship. Is it hurting your confidence as a driver?

LH: “No, it’s not affecting my confidence as a driver, I just think the sport is.. You know, people want to see motor racing, want to see overtaking, and you get done for trying to overtake. You get done trying to put on a show. You get done trying to make a move. And fair play, if I, if I really feel that I’ve just gone too late and hit someone, I put my hand up and realise ‘OK, I really have caused an incident and I’ve been the stupid one.’ But it’s not the case.”

Q: What are the next steps? Do you speak to Bernie, do you speak to the FIA or do you carry on as you want to?

LH: “Umm, I just try and keep my mouth shut, and enjoy the rest of the season, which I’m sure is going to be an interesting one. But, as you can see, he’s walking away with it.”

Q: Do you feel it’s too late for your championship now?

LH: “I don’t know, it’s never too late, it’s never too. But it’s not looking great, I must say, but I gave it my all today, and the team did a great job to get the car back out and to get it fixed for the last few laps, and I really have to apologise to the fans for, what I think is a bit of a shambles of an experience that they saw probably with me but I’ll try my best to bounce back for the next race.”

Q: Sorry I’m going to have go to another negative, what happened in the pit stop? You came in and the team didn’t seem ready at one point.

LH: “They said ‘box to overtake,’ I came in, and they weren’t there. Simple as that.”

Q: All in all, a day to forget?

LH: “The whole weekend I would say! But we have these weekends, and I think it’s character testing. Or at least that’s what people say, whether it’s right or wrong. You’ve just got to suck it in. I’m going to go and chill, and try and enjoy the rest of the weather and do some jet-skiing and try not to get myself in any more trouble.”

Pastor Maldonado blames Lewis Hamilton for the crash that put him out of the Monaco GP shortly after the restart.

Hamilton tried a move up the inside at Ste Devote, which ended in heavy contact that put the Venezuelan into the barrier. Hamilton was given a 20 secs penalty that didn’t affect his sixth position.

“I think he tried on myself exactly the same manoeuvre that he tried on Felipe,” said Maldonado. “Exactly the same. He was too optimistic. I think this is a very narrow track. I think you must be very carefully on the overtaking. I did many overtakings all through the race, and I never had some problems, because I was very convinced to do that.

“For sure he was maybe in some troubles because of his position, he’s fighting for the championship. I think we did a very great job until the crash.

“In order to overtake there you must be side by side, and he wasn’t. You know I think he was too optimistic, because of the conditions of the race, and he was on option tyres. That’s it.”

Asked bythis blog whether he had seen Lewis coming or expected a move, he said: “I was looking for my line you know, and I just feel the crash. No way.”

Lewis Hamilton has created a storm with some ill-advised comments after the Monaco GP, in which he finished sixth after two controversial collisions.

Yesterday Lewis was critical of his team and today he slagged off the FIA and hios fellow drivers and even managed – albeit apparently in jest – to introduce a race element.

He received a drive through for pushing Felipe Massa and after the race received a 20 seconds penalty for a clash with Pastor Maldonado, although he didn’t lose any positions. Both drivers have made their displeasure clear.

Asked about his race by the BBC’s Lee McKenzie, Hamilton said: “It’s an absolute frickin’ joke. I’ve been to see the stewards five times out of six this season.

“Massa held me up in qualifying, I got the penalty. He turned in to me, I got the penalty. These drivers are ridiculous. It’s stupid.

“People want to see racing. But you get done trying to put on a show, trying to make a move. Fair play, if I feel I’ve gone too late I’d hold my hand up to admit I’ve caused an incident. But it’s not the case. I’ll just try and keep my mouth shut and try to enjoy the rest of the season.”

Asked why he was always in trouble, Hamilton said: “Maybe it’s because I’m black. That’s what Ali G says.”

Sebastian Vettel was given the wrong tyres at his pit stop in Monaco and RBR had to change its strategy thereafter.

Vettel was supposed to get another set of supersofts but due to a radio blunder he was given softs instead – and in the confusion he lost a few seconds.

“We had an issue at the first stop where the radio seemed to get jammed,”  Christian Horner told this blog. “And the communication from the pit wall upstairs didn’t reach the guys downstairs. So there was some confusion over the tyres to go on the Seb’s car. We were looking at going on another set of options and he drove out of the pitlane with another set of primes on.”

After that the team had to adjust its strategy and eventually settled on a one-stop. Luck seems to be riding with Seb at the moment…

As expected Lewis Hamlton has lost his qualifying time in Q3 after cutting the chicane at the exit of the Swimming Pool.

Because it was his only proper flying lap in that session he drops to the back of Q3, and with Sergio Perez non starting, that means ninth.

Lewis has paid the price for not having set a banker time early on. Even though he was on a bad lap when he jumped the chicane, because it was his only flying lap, it came up as a green sector time.

Hamilton went off because the team sent him out early and his tyres cooled down as he waited at the end of the pitlane.

Perez had a lucky escape - his helmet was unmarked

Sergio Perez has escaped with no serious injuries from his huge crash in qualifying in Monaco.

Despite the severity of the accident his helmet was unmarked, although the headrest foam did its job and was cracked.

He will have to pass FIA tests before he is allowed to race in Montreal.

Sauber released a short statement as follows: “It was with great relief the Sauber F1 Team received the news that Sergio Pérez has no serious injuries after his heavy accident in the closing minutes of the final part of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Shortly before 15:00 hrs he had crashed into the barrier after the fast tunnel section of the circuit.

“The 21-year-old Mexican was taken to the Hospital Princess Grace in Monaco from where the team received further information at 16:25 hrs: The doctors said Pérez had suffered concussion and a sprained thigh, but no broken bones and, following a scan, they could find no further injuries.

“The reason for the accident will be investigated and the team will update the media as soon as it has any further information.”

A couple of weeks ago after a tip from a good source I suggested that the Indian GP might end up on December 11, and Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali confirmed today that Bernie Ecclestone has indeed proposed the date.

Bernie is trying to move Delhi to free up October 30 for Bahrain. The problem with the previously suggested date of December 4 is that it is regarded as almost impossible to get F1’s infrastructure into India from the Brazilian GP on November 27.

New races are never scheduled as back-to-backs because of the lack of experience with customs and so on.

The FIA’s end of year meetings – including the F1 prizegiving involving the top three drivers – is due to take place in Delhi the week before the proposed new date…

The other more pressing in problem is that many race team staff members are committed to holidays in December because that’s the only time available.

“What we discussed yesterday was related to the possibility of a calendar that will be presented to the WMSC on Friday [June 3],” said Domenicali, “that will shift the last date not in the first week of December, but the second week. This is quite a tricky calendar, I might say. We need to sort out and see if the logistics of all of this can be sorted out.”

Domenicali said Ferrari is keen to return to Bahrain: “I think that first of all I can speak about Ferrari, Ferrari wants to go to Bahrain for the future, for a long time. We feel Bahrain is a race where F1 has to go. We need to work together with them to see if for the benefit of being there for a really long, long time it’s good to do a choice for this year, or wait and see.”

Meanwhile someone who should know indicated to me that Delhi could do with the extra time…

Group Lotus had provided more details of today’s judgement, undelining the fact that it has won on several points and can continue to use the name – without ‘Team’ in front of it – in F1.

This is what Group Lotus says:

Mr Justice Peter Smith today gave his judgement in the dispute between Group Lotus plc and Team Lotus, Tony Fernandes and others in respect of the right to use the name “Lotus” in Formula 1.

Judgement Summary

• Group Lotus has the right to use the name “Lotus” on its own within Formula 1

• Group Lotus entitled to race in the historic black and gold livery

• 1Malaysia Racing Team (1MRT) ruled to be in breach of licence agreement, Group Lotus awarded damages

• Team Lotus Ventures Limited trademarks revoked for non-use

• Group Lotus trade marks unaffected

• Group Lotus has the right to use the Lotus marque on cars for road use

The Judge found that:

Group Lotus has goodwill associated with the name “Lotus” in Formula 1 and is free to compete in the sport under that name using the Lotus roundel;

Group Lotus is entitled to race in F1 using the historic black and gold livery;

1MRT is in breach of the Licence granted to them by Group Lotus to race in F1 under the name Lotus Racing and has awarded Group Lotus damages in respect of that breach;

Team Lotus Ventures Limited’s trade mark registrations in the name of Team Lotus are cancelled as a result of non-use;

Group Lotus trade mark registrations are unaffected; and

Group Lotus has the right to use the Lotus marque on cars for road use.

The Judge also found that Team Lotus has the right to continue to race in Formula 1 under the name Team Lotus but the effect of the Judgment is that only Group Lotus can use the name “Lotus” on its own in F1. Group Lotus is concerned that this aspect of the Judgment will cause confusion in the eyes of spectators and the wider public. Accordingly, Group Lotus is seeking leave to appeal so that the right to use the Lotus brand in Formula 1 is clarified once and for all in the interests of the sport and the fans. Group Lotus and its shareholder Proton Holding Bhd are confident of success on appeal.

Speaking after the judgement, Sarah Price, Head of Legal, Group Lotus plc said: “Group Lotus is pleased that its right to race under the Lotus name in F1 has been upheld and that the Defendants’ attempts to stop that have failed.

“The on-going dispute with Team Lotus and associated companies has been a cause for concern for all at Group Lotus. Despite the detailed judgment there are issues which still require clarification and we remain committed to obtaining this much needed clarity for the many fans of the Lotus marque – we are extremely grateful for their continued support. The decision to appeal has not been taken lightly.”