Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton kept their Formula One feud simmering on Thursday as bookmakers offered odds on them colliding again in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
The two drivers have had a magnetic attraction for each other on the track this season, chalking up six incidents in 17 races.
The most recent was in India at the end of last month, with Massa punished by stewards for causing a collision and then presenting himself as the wronged party.
Asked whether he had spoken to Hamilton since India, Massa told reporters at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that there had been no conversation and he was still clearly aggrieved at getting the drive-through penalty.
Hamilton said he felt the whole incident was “done and dusted” without any need for a meeting.
The 2008 champion denied it was getting harder to mend fences as more time passed.
“Not really. If you want to be a man about it, be a man about it and sort it out,” Hamilton said. “But it has to come from two people, and if one doesn’t want to do that, then you just continue going down the route you are going down and you try to be professional.”
British bookmakers saw a commercial opportunity.
William Hill were taking bets at 14-1 on a seventh coming together at the Yas Marina circuit, while Ladbrokes offered a less generous 5-1.
Massa was not impressed by either.
“I don’t think so, and anyway, I will do everything right, which is what I’ve done all the time,” he said when asked if it was a good bet. “I’ve not done anything wrong. Even though we’ve touched this year it has not been my fault.”
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