Vettel: Hamilton the only one without a short-term memory!

Sebastian Vettel has joked that Lewis Hamilton is "the only one that doesn't have a short-term memory", after the five-time world champion's defence of the four-time champion.

Vettel was heavily criticised following his mistake in Bahrain, whilst going wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton, before spinning out to allow his rival to top a Mercedes one-two.

The German made a similar mistake in Italy last season, whilst battling with Hamilton, and ultimately Vettel's season faded away.

Mercedes driver Hamilton was quick to jump to the defence of his title rival in Italy and did so again following the latest error in Bahrain.

“Maybe he's the only one that doesn't have a short-term memory,” said Vettel. “I think we've been around a long time, and obviously as much as I want to beat Lewis, he wants to beat me.

“But sometimes you never know what is going on with other people in their teams and so on, unless you are racing them in the same team, in which case you know a bit more.

“Sometimes things might not go your way, but when you don't understand exactly or you don't know, I think it's very difficult to say much about certain things.

“But I also know nowadays people's judgement doesn't go further than a week, forward or backwards. So it's part of the life. I didn't know he said anything nice, but it's nice to hear.”