Hamilton Does Burnout, Gets Ticket from the Australian Police

Lewis Hamilton issued a public apology for the “over-exuberant manner” in which he drove his personal car through the streets of Melbourne this week. After leaving the Albert Park circuit following the practice sessions on Friday, the Brit decided to show off a bit in his Mercedes C63 AMG saloon near along the Lakeside Drive part of Melbourne.

We don't know who was Hamilton trying to impress in Australia – as there was no news of girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger being there with him – but at one moment he did a burnout and a fishtail with his car.

Consequently, he got pulled over by the Australian police and fined in the process. Additionally, his Mercedes was pounded for 48 hours. It didn't take long for Ham to apologize for the incident either, as he issued a media statement shortly after in which he admitted overreacting while driving.

“This evening, I was driving in an over-exuberant manner and, as a result, was stopped by the police. What I did was silly, and I want to apologize for it,” said Hamilton in the statement. The 2008 Formula One champion is no longer managed by his father Anthony, but by the staff at McLaren Mercedes.

According to the local media, Hamilton was visibly upset when stopped by the police and worried that this incident could cause further damage to his public image. Additionally, the incident comes only a few days after the FIA launched a brand new road safety campaign, which every team and driver in the F1 paddock supported publicly.

Nevertheless, Ham was far more lucky than fellow F1 driver Vitaly Petrov, who was fined no less than EUR7,000 – this time by the Aussie stewards at Albert Park – for exceeding the pit lane speed limit on Friday morning. Force India's Adrian Sutil and HRT F1's Bruno Senna were also victims of pit lane speeding, being each charged only EUR1,600 by the organizers.