Mike Gascoyne, the Force India technical boss, says Giancarlo Fisichella’s defeat of Lewis Hamilton in the recent Bahrain grand prix provided an extra sense of satisfaction.

Earlier in the Sakhir race, it emerges that during Hamilton’s nightmare recovery from his poor start and collisions with Fernando Alonso, he waved his fist at Fisichella, the Roman veteran.

“I don’t know why he did that,” Gascoyne, a Briton like Hamilton, told the Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell.

“Fisichella was fighting with him for position, and he can’t expect to just be let past.

“The gesture was totally unnecessary,” Gascoyne added, “so it was especially good to be in front of him at the end.”

Former triple world champion Niki Lauda was also unimpressed with 23-year-old Hamilton’s errors in Bahrain, which culminated in his loss of the championship lead.

“At the moment he does not impress me,” the great Austrian observed. “I thought he would become better this year but he has become worse.

“He is in pretty bad shape,” Lauda added.

Former German racer Hans-Joachim Stuck is slightly more sympathetic, reckoning that the pressure is perhaps too high for a driver in his second season.

“The pressure on him is enormous,” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper.

“He is the team leader at McLaren-Mercedes and has so much hype surrounding him.

“F1 is on such a high level that even tiny errors are punished harshly,” Stuck added.

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