Sebastian Vettel and Christian Horner on Sunday defended Lewis Hamilton after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Following a clash with Max Verstappen, world champion Hamilton called the Dutch driver a "dickhead".

"It's a human reaction," said race winner and championship leader Vettel, intervening as a reporter asked Hamilton about the crude insult.

"I feel it's all a bit blown up and artificial if we have these shit questions, trying to make a story out of nothing. I think we should cut it right there."

Even though it was his driver under verbal attack by Hamilton, Red Bull boss Horner also defended Hamilton.

"The fight was tough. Max is an aggressive racer, Lewis is an aggressive racer. People turn on the TV to see how their fight turns out," he said.

At present, the fight is going well for German Vettel; not since 1982 has a driver not won the championship after winning the opening two races of a season.

However, Vettel dismissed the significance of that statistic, and Toto Wolff agreed that Mercedes and Red Bull are very much still in the hunt.

"The pendulum will swing from team to team depending on the race track," he said in Bahrain.

The season continues with the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.