Asked why he had not simply called Button first to check whether the story was true, Hamilton said: "Hindsight is a lovely thing. I tried as hard as I could to get hold of Jenson [after the incident] but I think he had a night out so I couldn't get hold of him. So I sent a message, he replied and accepted it. The first thing I did here was to go and apologise. Now my focus is on the weekend."
At arms's length: Hamilton and Button did not sit next to each other at drivers's dinner
Pressed on whether he was really serious about closing his Twitter account, Hamilton, who has not tweeted since Monday, said he was still unsure. "I didn't say I was going to [give up]. But like I said maybe Twitter isn't for me, maybe just Instagram."
Hamilton's desire to brush off the incident as a regrettable mistake is understandable but the feeling within the sport is that his tweet betrayed his own insecurities and highlighted a basic lack of trust between the two team mates.
Hamilton denied, though, that he and Button were now enemies or that the incident would have any effect on the final five-race run-in. "Not at all," Hamilton said. "I am aware that people are now trying to say there is a rift between Jenson and me. I just said to him, although it is probably hard to believe after this week, that I have always respected him.
"I knew him and his dad…in '95 I won the British championship with his dad's engines so I have got a huge amount of respect for him and what he has done in the sport. We have had a fantastic relationship all these years. Sometimes in the heat of the moment you just say things you shouldn't say or that you don't mean."
Button, speaking later, would only say that the situation had been "dealt with", declining to comment any further. But the 2009 world champion is understood to have been dismayed by Hamilton's indiscretion. When asked whether he felt it would have any impact on things moving forward, the 32 year-old agreed with Hamilton that it would make no difference. "I have no issue with it. He's entitled to his opinion. That's it," was his curt observation.
We will see. At least Hamilton managed to inject some levity into proceedings with a response to a query about Korean YouTube sensation Psy. Asked if he would be dancing 'Gangnam style' this weekend, in honour of the popstar whose video has racked up more than 400 million views worldwide and who is an ambassador at this race, Hamilton joked that he had probably "embarrassed himself enough this week.".
Looking ahead to this weekend, Hamilton said he had been encouraged to learn there had been "big problems" with his car in Japan, where he was only able to finish fifth.
"I knew there was something wrong with it but I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was," he said. "So I had the team make sure they did as much research as they could to find out what went on. They found some big problems which I was quite happy about because it means I am not crazy."
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