Hamilton 'joking' over grid girls post

Lewis Hamilton insisted Saturday that he was only joking when he took to social media to back the return of grid girls at this year's Monaco Grand Prix.

The defending four-time world champion had posted a grab from another Instagram user, which had a picture of some grid girls and added "Thank you Jesus" before then deleting the message.

"I saw this post and it was just a joke -- beautiful girls coming back, thank you Jesus!," Hamilton told reporters at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.

Both the Monaco and Russian Grands Prix have indicated they plan to defy Formula One's decision to use 'grid kids' instead of girls this year.