Sydney, Aug 24 (DPA) Australian authorities have demanded an apology from British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton after he was fined for dangerous driving while in Melbourne for this year’s Australian Grand Prix.
‘Lewis Hamilton set a bad example,’ Victoria state Premier John Brumby told reporters Tuesday.
The former world champion fishtailed his saloon car, making the tyres screech and smoke, as he left the Albert Park race track in March.
A police patrol car caught up with him and confiscated his car.
Brumby urged Hamilton to donate to a driver education organixation after he pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to intentionally losing control of his vehicle.
He was represented by a lawyer and fined 500 Australian dollars (US$445). No conviction was recorded.
‘I fully accept that I am a public figure and I consider that I have a duty to act as a role model to youngsters,’ Hamilton wrote in a letter to the court. ‘The publicity caused by this incident was immense, and that in itself has been a form of punishment for me.’
Magistrate Clive Alsop said Hamilton had set a poor example. ‘This is about somebody in a responsible position behaving like a hoon (a boy racer),’ Alsop said.
