McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton managed to duck out of responding to reports from Germany, which quote his friend Adrian Sutil as branding him a "coward" over his decision not to give evidence in court for Sutil's recent GBH trial.
The quotes from Sutil appeared in Germany's often-inaccurate Bild tabloid newspaper, and see Sutil brand his long-time friend a "coward" and "not a man" after choosing not to attend the trial.
Hamilton had been called to give evidence over allegations that Sutil had assaulted Lotus co-owner Eric Lux in a Chinese nightclub while with Hamilton.
But Hamilton told the court that he would be unable to attend the court in Munich due to prior commitments.
Sutil was found guilty of grievous bodily harm by the court on Tuesday, and was handed a 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of 200,000 Euros.
And afterwards, Bild quoted him as suggesting that Hamilton had avoided supporting him in court.
"Lewis is a coward. I do not want to be friends with someone like that," the German tabloid quoted him as saying on Wednesday.
"For me he is not a man. Even his father sent me a text message to wish me good luck in the trial. He [Lewis] changed his cellphone number. I could not even reach him anymore."
But asked about the comments from Sutil in an interview at McLaren's new car launch on Wednesday, the McLaren driver was prevented from answering by a team spokesman.
"We've been told that Lewis shouldn't really [talk about the case] because it might go under appeal," the spokesman told Reuters, "So can we move on to the next question."
Hamilton simply offered: "I'll listen to him [the spokesman]."
Sutil was in the nightclub celebrating Hamilton's win in the Chinese Grand Prix earlier that day when the incident happened.
The German has been friends with Hamilton since they raced together in the Formula Three Euroseries in 2005 as team mates.
Sutil now faces a year on the F1 sidelines in 2012, having failed to secure an alternative drive after being dropped by Force India.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
