Mark Webber warned Lewis Hamilton before burnout bust-up

REMEMBER that time at the Australian Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton was pinged by police for bagging up the rear wheels of his 2010 C63 AMG outside the track’s entrance?

Mark Webber had warned him not to do it, Wheels can reveal exclusively.

A Mercedes-Benz insider told Wheels that Hamilton was contrite after the incident, which took place in 2010. He was charged with reckless driving after performing a burnout and fishtailing down the road as he was leaving the Albert Park track after qualifying on pole.

Police also impounded Hamilton’s car: a silver 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.

The McLaren pilot was later forced to issue an apology, describing the incident as “silly” and admitting he was driving the V8-engined performance sedan in what he said was an “over-exuberant manner".

“Yeah, he was sorry he did it,” the source said. “He said that Webber had told him not to do it.”

Webber was vocal following Hamilton’s incident as well, launching a stinging assault on authorities and describing Australia as a “nanny state”.

''I think we've got to read an instruction book when we get out of bed - what we can do and what we can't do … put a yellow vest on and all that sort of stuff,'' Webber told the press. “[Australia] has certainly changed since I left here. It pisses me off coming back here, to be honest.

''It's a great country but we've got to be responsible for our actions and it's certainly a bloody nanny state when it comes to what we can do. And Lewis has found out very quickly.”

Hamilton’s no stranger to off-track controversy, with the three-time world champ again making headlines by crashing his Pagani Zonda in Monaco earlier this year. The Brit blamed the incident, in which his custom-built, multi-million dollar supercar collided with parked cars, on “heavy partying”.