Lewis Hamilton escaped sanction after a controversial end to qualifying when the Ferrari team felt that the McLaren driver had disturbed Kimi Raikkonen’s final Q3 flying lap.

Hamilton emerged from the pits following his last tyre change just as Raikkonen was powering onto the back straight in the midst of his last hot lap.

The McLaren driver looked as if he might impede Raikkonen’s entry to turn four, but saw him in time and stayed on the inside, giving Kimi the racing line into the corner.

The Finn then got a little out of shape in turn four and went on to qualify behind Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa and Hamilton.

In light of the 10-place grid penalty imposed on Fernando Alonso at Monza last year for impeding Massa – when the Ferrari driver was never closer than 93 metres to the Spaniard’s Renault approaching the Parabolica corner – there seemed every possibility that Hamilton could find himself sweating on a third stewards’ enquiry within a fortnight.

Ferrari brought the matter to the attention of race director Charlie Whiting but, on being told that Hamilton had no case to answer, saw no point in lodging a protest.

Hamilton apologised to Raikkonen after the session but insisted he had done his best to stay out of the way.

“I came out and, obviously, you have to keep to the left of the white [blend] line,” he related.

“The team came on the radio and said that I should be coming out pretty close to Kimi.

“The speed I was doing, with the mirrors vibrating, I couldn’t really see if he was there and at the time I first looked he wasn’t.

“I thought I would stay where I was because he might have been there and we might have crashed, so I just stayed on the inside and waited for him to appear.

“He did, and so I had to brake and bale out otherwise I would have impeded him if I had taken the corner.”

Raikkonen, asked whether Hamilton’s car had been a distraction and a factor in him losing time in the second sector of the lap, said: “For sure it didn’t help…”

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis said: “There wasn’t actually an incident. I think we were very aware Kimi was on a quick lap.

“Lewis can’t have impeded him because that was Kimi’s fastest mid sector time and on the second run he was overall quicker than on his first run.

“I don’t think the data supports there being any impediment.”

There was then an extraordinary exchange between Hamilton and the correspondent of French newspaper L’Equipe, when Lewis was asked whether he thought he could do whatever he liked so long as he apologised.

The journalist, Anne Giuntini, said to Hamilton: “You never showed him clearly that you would give him the track free.”

To which Lewis countered: “What do you want me to do, put the indicator on?”

“You know exactly…” said Giuntini.

“I did the best job I could to get out of the way,” Hamilton insisted. “And I did apologise to him if I did get in his way.”

Giuntini continued: “Is that what you call the best job?”

“Yes,” replied Hamilton.

“As a sportsman?” she persisted.

“Yes,” he retorted. “How are you at your job? Are you the best at your job? You have never made mistakes…no?”

Later on, the best line came from the Ferrari press officer as British journalists sought to file copy while interrupted by England’s disallowed try in the Rugby World Cup final, being screened in the Interlagos press room.

As the judges considered the TV footage, Ferrari’s Luca Colajanni piped up, with a wry smile on his face: “At least they investigated it…”