Eric Boullier, team principal of the Enstone-based Lotus team, has apologised for the radio exchange between Kimi Raikkonen and the pit wall in Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, who was struggling on badly-worn tyres, was being challenged for third place on lap 56 of 60 by his teammate, Romain Grosjean, when the Frenchman was forced wide by the Finn.

With the Ferrari of Felipe Massa closing in, the incident led to an angry exchange over the team radio, with an engineer using an expletive in telling Raikkonen to “get out of the way”.

After the Finn delivered a colourful retort of his own Grosjean was finally able to get past on his way to claiming the bottom step on the podium, while Raikkonen slipped back to an eventual seventh place at the chequered flag.

Boullier said: “With hindsight, this radio message could have been sent in a less emotional way.

“There was a lot of tension, a lot of potential technical problems, and some of the words that flew around were simply not appropriate.

“I know that quite a few people were surprised and I can only apologise for that on behalf of the team. It won’t happen again.”