F1 drivers split dinner 18 ways – and Lewis Hamilton blames Nico Rosberg

Formula One drivers are among the best-paid sportsmen in the world but that did not stop them from splitting the bill 18 ways after their dinner in Shanghai on Wednesday night.

Lewis Hamilton, who last year signed a £100m three-year contract with Mercedes, said he picked the restaurant – an Italian called The Kitchen – and laid down the deposit for the meal, which all but four of the grid attended. But when it came to who picked up the bill, he claimed his offer to pay was shot down by Nico Rosberg, his Mercedes team-mate.

“It was a little bit silly really, ridiculous because someone said: ‘Let’s share the bill,’ so 18 drivers shared a bill which is just insane,” Hamilton said with a smile. “It probably wasn’t really that expensive. I did say: ‘Why don’t I just get it now, or two of us get it now, and then the next time someone else gets it?’ And they are like: ‘No, no, no. I want to pay individually.’

“We all got a receipt, 18 receipts, 18 credit cards, it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I have never seen anything like that before.” Asked who made that suggestion, Hamilton replied: “I am pretty sure it was Nico.”

#racingUnitedor in Bernie's words: #windbagsunited pic.twitter.com/abZjCTVv26

When Hamilton’s version of events was then put to Rosberg, the German said: “Really? Interesting. From what I can remember, the hidden agreement usually is that the world champion pays, but that might just be my opinion.”

The drivers, minus Kimi Raikkonen, the Renault pair Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen and Indonesia’s Rio Haryanto, posed for a photograph afterwards which a number of them subsequently posted on to their social media accounts. Rosberg accompanied his message with the hashtag “windbagsunited”