Rumor
Formula 1
'Twittergate' deepens as Hamilton reveals McLaren secrets
GMM
Edited: Sep 2, 2012, 8:06 PM
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Sep.2 (GMM) The Lewis Hamilton 'Twittergate' affair deepened on Sunday.
On Saturday, 'Tweets' posted by the 2008 world champion and featuring the obscenity-acronym 'WTF' suggested Jenson Button had been given a better front wing in qualifying.
The Tweets were deleted.
Then, ahead of Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, the 'Twittergate' affair shifted into a higher gear when Hamilton posted via his social media account an image of a confidential McLaren telemetry sheet.
A crash at the start involving Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1, Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Photo by: xpb.cc
The sheet was apparently evidence of Button's qualifying advantage at Spa-Francorchamps, with hand-written remarks making clear Hamilton lost '6 tenths on the STRAIGHT' to the sister McLaren.
It also included sensitive team information, including the MP4-27's ride height.
"He was asked to take it down and he did it immediately," team boss Martin Whitmarsh is quoted by the BBC.
The affair comes amid Hamilton's reported tense negotiations with McLaren over his new contract for 2013.
"This is effectively a war," an unnamed paddock member said.
Whitmarsh, adding that Hamilton apologised, explained: "He misjudged the (telemetry) situation.
"He wasn't thinking clearly, obviously."
The 27-year-old British driver crashed at the first corner on Sunday, and did not appear for interviews during the race.
Afterwards, he said: "I really don't want to talk about the start. People can see what happened."
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh says Lewis Hamilton "misjudged" a tweet he posted showing sensitive technical information and that the matter has been dealt with.
Away from the controversy Whitmarsh is delighted with Jenson Button's performance after a lights-to-flag win at Spa-Francorchamps for the 2009 world champion.
Despite Hamilton not finishing the race after a first-corner accident Whitmarsh feels the team are in great shape going into the final eight races of the season.
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