By Jonathan Noble and Biranit Goren Saturday, October 20th 2007, 21:32 GMT
Lewis Hamilton faced fierce opposition at Interlagos on Saturday, but his rival was not one of the Formula One drivers but rather a French journalist who took the Briton to task in the official FIA post qualifying press conference.
L'Equipe writer Anne Giuntini was clearly unhappy with how Hamilton had let Kimi Raikkonen past in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Wasting little time to put her point of view across on the eve of what could be Hamilton's maiden championship, Giuntini suggested that the British driver had not been fair in his dealings with the Ferrari driver.
"For everybody, it is evident that twice you disturbed Kimi. Is everything good to become a world champion?" she asked.
Hamilton responded: "To be honest there is no reason for me to do anything to Kimi because if anything he can win..."
"You never showed him clearly that you could give him the track free?" Giuntini continued, as the two locked in a heated exchange.
"What do you want me to do? Put the indicator on?" Hamilton replied.
"You know exactly..." She said.
"I did the best job I could to get out of the way," Hamilton insisted. "And I did apologise to him if I did get in his way."
"Is that what you call the best job?" Giuntini continued.
"Yes," Hamilton responded.
Giuntini: "As a sportsman?"
Hamilton: "Yes. How are you at your job? Are you the best at your job? You never made mistakes....no?"
Giuntini: "Sometimes..."
Hamilton: "Oh, really..."
Other journalists managed to stir the press conference on to other topics, until one made the mistake of mentioning Giuntini's run-in with Hamilton, labelling it a "ridiculous exchange". The Frenchwoman saw this as her cue to pick up where she earlier left off.
"Let us continue the ridiculous exchange," she turned to Hamilton. "Do you think you can do everything you want and then you just apologise - is that the way it works in Formula One?"
"I'm not going to answer that," Hamilton finally snapped. "I just don't want to talk to you, to be honest."
Giuntini, who is married to Renault's head of engine track operations Denis Chevrier, continued her battle later on in the paddock, having further verbal exchanges with McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Hamilton's father Anthony.
