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ABU DHABI: In a rarely seen sight of competitive camaraderie, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel exchanged protective helmets to demonstrate mutual respect after the Sunday Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (November 25).
The five-time British champion, Mercedes, and the four-time German champion, Ferrari, finished first and second in Sunday's race and have won eight of the last nine league titles.
"The ultimate respect among racing drivers," Mercedes said Monday in a comment on Twitter, accompanied by a short video clip of the couple exchanging their helmets.
The duo has abandoned for the last two world titles and Hamilton has imposed them twice, but their rivalry has been characterized by a fair sporting relationship.
Hamilton said the exchange of their helmets was an honorific gesture comparable to the swapping of jerseys after football games.
"It's a kind of honor on the part of the drivers, so it's the highest respect we can have as drivers," he said in the video message. "It's like our jerseys, so here's one of mine."
"Great job this year and it's a real pleasure to run against you."
Vettel said he was "looking forward" to trading with Hamilton for the first time. "Well done," he replied. "Five championships, it's a big feat, I hope I will not stop you anymore."
While they were smiling and wondering, Hamilton told Vettel that he "could not actually use it" because the German pilot had "a little head".
The goodwill between the two contenders for the championship was warm at the end of a memorable season and at Hamilton's 11th win.
But we remember so much of the race of the crash of the opening lap which caused the aerial barrel of the German pilot Nico Hulkenberg in the barriers.
He escaped unscathed and joked that he was "near the barbeque" after the race as speculation mounted that the "cockpit" cockpit protector could have hampered his extraction. .
That was stifled on Monday when Formula One official Charlie Whiting said the halo of his Renault had not slowed his pull on the Yas Marina circuit. Hulkenberg had said that he felt and was "hanged like a cow" before being saved.
When asked if the halo was a problem in the Hulkenberg extraction, Whiting replied, "No, not at all, we knew he was fine." There was nothing to fear there. "
"Under these circumstances, the routine is to put the car back on its wheels, which must be done with caution, of course.
"He was able to go out alone, it was very controlled by what I could see, our medical delegate was more than happy with how it happened, everything worked exactly as it should.
"When you have such an accident, the car radio is automatically routed to race control so we can get immediate information.
"The drivers normally say" it's okay "or" it's okay. So we have this message and we pass it on to the doctors who are going on the scene so that they know that he is fine.
"Then they can take the time to have the car repaired and let it out.It is clear that this is one of the accidents for which the halo was designed to help as it offers more and more. 39, space to the driver once the car upside down. "
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