Paddy Power offers £1m for Hamilton v Vettel boxing showdown

F1 got all a bit spicy on the weekend in a hectic Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was a fantastic race because of all the chaos and just what the sport needs to attract new viewers. On Sunday, the highlight of the race was a rush of blood to the head from Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel who, after running into the back of Hamilton behind the safety car, pulled alongside the British driver and sideswiped his car into Hamilton’s on purpose.

Hamilton called Vettel’s actions disgraceful and said: “If he wants to prove he is a man, we should do it out of the car, face-to-face”.

They’s fighting words and bookmaker Paddy Power only took a couple of hours after the Baku battle to offer up a £1m boxing bout between the pair, winner takes all – for charity.

Vettel was unhappy as he thought that Hamilton had deliberately slowed down “brake-testing” Vettel as they were behind the safety car on a restart and the German misread everything and ran into the back of the Mercedes, but blamed Hamilton (although all data proved that Hamilton had done nothing wrong) then Vettel pulled next to Hamilton, waving a fish and then just rammed Hamilton’s car.

There was no damage done to either and Hamilton was enraged that Vettel only got a 10 second penalty for dangerous driving. Vettel still had the last laugh though as Hamilton had to make an extra pit and finish fifth behind Vettel. Paddy Power have Hamilton as 1/10 favourite to beat Vettel in the ring, with the German trading at 5/1 for the potential match up. Hamilton is a 14/1 poke to knockout Vettel.

A spokesman for Paddy Power said: “So after Vettel smashed his car up, Lewis Hamilton is threatening to smash the German’s face up – it’s like road rage on steroids.

“Vettel is in the driving seat to win the fight, but I do think it’s really important to set some ground rules beforehand – boxing with them helmets would be no fun at all.”

LEWIS HAMILTON V SEBASTIAN VETTEL – CHARITY BOXING MATCH ODDS
Vettel win – 1/10
Hamilton win – 5/1

METHOD OF VICTORY
Vettel on points – 4/6
Vettel by KO – 9/4
Hamilton on points – 9/1
Hamilton on KO – 14/1

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