30 April 2023 , 06:00
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"If he wants to prove he's a man, we should do it out of the car face-to-face."
Fighting words – literally– from an clearly very angry Lewis Hamilton, in the wake of that infamous on-track clash he had with Sebastian Vettel at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It remains the most enduring memory from that 2017 race in Baku – the German sticking his Ferrari into the back of Hamilton's Mercedes.
The two racers were the early favourites for a title race that season, and the rivalry exploded into life the moment the cars made contact despite the fact they were both behind the safety car at the time.
They were first and second at the time, but the collision caused damage to both cars. With the front wing of the Ferrari damaged and Hamilton's Mercedes suffering with a rear diffuser problem, Daniel Ricciardo took advantage to win the race for Red Bull.
Telemetry data showed that Hamilton never touched his brake pedal, but Vettel still insisted that he had been brake tested by Hamilton. "F1 is for grown-ups," spat the German, who had also pulled alongside Hamilton to make a gesture with his hand and bang wheels.
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He added: "I drove alongside and we had a little contact. I wasn't happy with the brake-testing. I drove alongside him and raised my hand to say that is not the way to do it."
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have since become good friends (Getty Images)And the fuming Hamilton retorted: "He was obviously sleeping and driving alongside, and deliberately driving into a driver and coming away scot-free is a disgrace. He disgraced himself. If he wants to prove he's a man, we should do it out of the car face-to-face.
"Driving dangerously in any way can put another driver at risk. Luckily we were going slow. If we were going fast it could have been a lot worse. Imagine all the kids watching Formula 1 today and seeing that kind of behaviour from a four-time world champion."
Clearly they didn't see eye-to-eye at the time, but they went on to gain a lot of mutual respect for one another. Vettel alluded to that fact last year as he prepared for his final F1 race before retirement, recalling that moment and declaring that it helped to make their friendship stronger in the end.