Lewis Hamilton No Longer Has Respect of Force India's Adrian Sutil After Feud

Adrian Sutil will no longer “waste time” by trying to be friendly with Great Britain's Lewis Hamilton, whom he claims in GP Week (via Daily Telegraph) let him down badly back in 2011.

Sutil, of Force India, claims he used to count Hamilton as a friend on the Formula One circuit but, after the Mercedes driver failed to help him with a conviction of causing grievous bodily harm, insists his opinion of the Brit has plummeted:

"

These kind of people I don't really respect. I respect him as a sportsman, but in private he's not on my level and I don't need to waste time with those people.

I'm happy I realised what kind of a person he is.

"

The fallout was sparked by an incident that took place following the Chinese Grand Prix in 2011, which was won by Hamilton.

Having been involved in an incident at a Shanghai nightclub, which saw Sutil charged with causing grievous bodily harm for assaulting Lotus executive Eric Lux with a champagne glass, Sutil had hoped Hamilton would act as a witness, but the Brit never appeared.

The eventual outcome was an 18-month suspended sentence for Sutil, who also received a £167,000 fine.

Hamilton, who is currently in a confident mood after his Hungary Grand Prix triumph—predicting he can now win all nine remaining races this season—had expressed his desire ahead of this year’s Monaco race to meet up with Sutil.

However, Sutil claims he is still to hear from the Mercedes driver and insists their relationship is no longer one of friendship after Hamilton failed to support the German:

"

He always said he is my friend but he wishes to suddenly disappear, he changed his number. I saw him in the paddock and he always said, 'Yeah, we can sit down and talk about it', but he never arrived.

I have good friends, people I can learn from and this is the most important. I'm happy that I found out earlier rather than later. On the circuit, this is business. He's a great racing driver but we haven't really spoken about it.

"

Sutil currently finds himself 11th in this year’s World Drivers’ Championship, while Hamilton is fourth, 48 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.

The next grand prix takes place in Belgium on Aug. 25.