Lewis Hamilton defies F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's social media ban with Snapchat post

A day after the world champion admitted he had been warned not to film in the paddock he did exactly that as he prepared for the weekend’s Bahrain GP.

Lewis Hamilton has defied a Bernie ban to keep his fans posted on social media.

A day after the world champion admitted he had been warned not to film in the paddock he did exactly that as he prepared for the weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix . And then he posted it on Snapchat.

F1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone charges TV companies millions to broadcast each Grand Prix and transmit from the paddock and his lawyers aggressively chase teams, drivers, journalists and even fans who break the rules.

Hamilton, who avidly posts on Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram, said: “Fans should know what happens in my life.

“I would love to take my mobile phone right now and film everything here.

“But you have to pay money for that and I accept that. The team got a message and told me to stop.” But that is what he did when he arrived for the second round of the world championship in Bahrain.

He filmed from the Mercedes garage, his fans cheering during a walkabout session and a horde of photographers in the paddock.

Hamilton could now face a bill for tens of thousands of pounds after the three 10-second clips were posted yesterday.

And the world champion was also unapologetic about not being a member of the GPDA driver’s union as they push for change.

He added: “I felt my time was better spent with my engineers. But when there’s a really critical thing like safety I’m there.” But he slammed the way decisions were taken as “fundamentally flawed” when McLaren and Red Bull were able to veto moves to change the controversial knockout qualifying system.

He said: “When you’re driving and you’re not being challenged in the way you should be by the car – physically or mentally – the rules are being taken in the wrong direction. We can’t just stand still and let it happen.”

Sebastian Vettel also joined the widespread criticism that F1 bosses had not dumped the unpopular new qualifying format.

He said: “If you sell vanilla ice cream but everybody who comes to your shop is asking for chocolate ice cream, the next day you’d expect them to sell chocolate ice cream. But instead, you just sell vanilla again. It’s something we can’t be proud of.”

What Mercedes could be proud of though was their speed, as Nico Rosberg topped Hamilton with the pair nearly two seconds ahead in practice.