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Hamilton under fire for ‘weaving’ in Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton arrived in China Thursday hoping for a straightforward weekend — but within hours found himself under fire again for his ‘weaving’ defensive driving at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old McLaren driver was slammed by both Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello of Williams and Pole Robert Kubica of Renault for his car handling when he defended against Kubica’s team-mate Russian Vitaly Petrov.

Barrichello said he would have given Hamilton a ‘bollocking’. Kubica suggested that he should have been disciplined for his weaving around on the Sepang circuit in front of Petrov.

Hamilton was handed a warning by the race stewards after breaking a rule that says drivers can only move once, to change their line, when they are defending a position.

‘I don’t think this is the right thing to do. When I saw it, I was by myself watching the TV — and I was quite critical of it,’ Barrichello said.

‘If he was beside me I would have given him some bollocking because it wasn’t right. There are arguments to cover that, to say that he was under acceleration, not in the braking area.

‘There are so many things that they could come up with, but the drivers have an agreement, sort of an agreement — obviously a verbal agreement, nothing that has been signed — that you should move only once during the protection of your line.’

Kubica said: ‘The way he drove was not right — I thought something should have been done. According to the rules, I think there should have been a penalty.’

‘I don’t think it was only one driver who did more than one move. It’s important that you don’t move when you are side by side,’ he added.

Earlier, Hamilton had said he was hoping for a weekend free from controversy.

Shanghai has been a mixed venue for Hamilton. In 2007, he slid off into the gravel on worn tyres with the title in his grasp and then a year later he served up a memorable victory en route to clinching the championship.

‘After three races we’ve been satisfied with our race pace and we feel comfortable we’ll be up at the front,’ said Hamilton.