F1: Gutierrez calls Hamilton disrespectful

Esteban Gutierrez has accused Lewis Hamilton of being "disrespectful" after receiving an abusive hand gesture from the Formula 1 world champion during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

While Hamilton was leading the Hungaroring race with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg closing, the Briton was held up at one stage by Haas driver Gutierrez.

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As Hamilton finally passed Gutierrez at the top of the main straight he delivered what appeared to be a middle-finger salute to underline his unhappiness at being held up.

Informed of Hamilton's action, Gutierrez said: "Not a very respectful move from him I have to say. I have spoken to him in the past. I think he is respectful, he is the world champion, but he shouldn't do these kinds of things.

"He should respect all of the competitors. You never know, maybe in the future I will be fighting for a championship with him, so he has to respect that."

Gutierrez later tweeted his disappointment, adding: "Being a world champion doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful to your competitors, my friend."

Gutierrez received a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags, to which he responded: "I didn't ignore them! I simply had two aeroplanes coming from behind, coming very quickly! Of course, I was focused on my race, they came very quickly and I was trying to find the safest place to let them by.

"I've no comment on the penalty. As I say, I was aware of the blue flags, but I was really looking for the safest place to let them by."

Hamilton argued his gesture was not a rude one and he was just waving his hand in frustration.

"I lost so much time behind him, and at the same time Nico was catching me, which was really, really tough," he said. "I may have wanted to do that [middle finger], but I didn't."

Haas team principal Gunther Steiner felt Hamilton's gesture influenced the stewards and played a part in the penalty.

"I don't know what he was annoyed about because he didn't keep him back that long," said Steiner. "Esteban got penalized five seconds, and that was because the gesture was done because he was holding him up. The five-second penalty didn't change Esteban's result, and the hold up didn't change anything with Lewis' result, so it [the penalty] wasn't needed.

"We will check the data and do a proper evaluation to see how long other people were ignoring blue flags. Maybe somebody else ignored blue flags longer, but because Lewis Hamilton didn't give them a gesture maybe that guy wasn't penalized.

"It's difficult for the stewards because it's a judgement call, not only numbers."

Originally on Autosport.com