Lewis' private life is private - Dennis

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes boss, Ron Dennis, is not happy with the way the paparazzi is chasing Lewis Hamilton down. During the three-week summer break, Hamilton was photographed and linked with different women. On of the girls with whom Hamilton was photographed is one of the daughters of Mansour Ojjeh, a principal shareholder of McLaren. According to Dennis, the girl was there with her boyfriend and she and Lewis are only friends.

Ron Dennis "I had to laugh over so many things that I was reading. There are so many things that were just ridiculous. I know for a fact that all of the activities Lewis was involved in were him just having fun with Mansour's family. That invitation was extended in Monte Carlo because of Lewis' friendship with his kids, just as my daughter is a friend of Lewis'.

"They text each other, they are in the same age group, they are of the same era. So he spent some of his time with Mansour having fun, and he spent the rest of the time in Portugal with his family. It was a completely normal experience, and to see people superimposed on photographs is a joke.

"Lewis' private life is private, and it is disturbing to see when it is so heavily distorted because that is just not fair. But he handles it and that is part of growing up."

Lewis Hamilton himself is planning to leave Britain in the hope that the paparazzi will leave him alone when he lives abroad.