Model Viktoria Odintcova reveals ‘romantic’ relationship with Lewis Hamilton

F1 icon Lewis Hamilton is in the “friend zone” with Russian model Viktoria Odintcova, who says the driver once tried to court her.

Viktoria Odintcova is just friends with Lewis Hamilton these days.

A Russian Instagram model says she had a “romantic” relationship with Lewis Hamilton.

Viktoria Odintcova, 26, claims the six-time F1 world champion pursued her after he broke up with pop star Nicole Scherzinger.

Odintcova, who also says football megastar Cristiano Ronaldo messaged her on social media, claims she and Hamilton, 35, are now just friends, The Sun reports.

In an interview with Peopletalk TV, she reportedly said: “We had different types of relationship.

“At a certain period of time it was romantic. He was courting me.

“But then this relationship evolved into friendship.

“I live in Russia and he lives abroad. We just became friends who can message each other and send holiday greetings.”

Odintcova, a TV host with 5.1 million Instagram followers, says she met the Mercedes driver in Barcelona four years ago.

She says they then started exchanging messages on social media but now things are purely platonic between them.

Speaking of their friendship, Odintcova said: “It was after Nicole Scherzinger.

“We met in Barcelona three or four years ago. We have been on good terms since then, he’s my friend.

“We don’t have any romantic (relations).

“We can call each other asking, ‘How are you doing? Let’s drink coffee someday’. That’s it.”

Odintcova previously spoke of Hamilton being the “most famous person in my phone book”.

She said last year: “The most famous person in my phone book is Lewis Hamilton.

“We’re friends, we just write to each other and call sometimes. He’s in the friend zone …

“I go to his races occasionally, the last time was in Sochi (at the Russian Grand Prix).

“I understand that he’s a normal guy, we message each other on Instagram.”

Lewis Hamilton and Nicole Scherzinger used to be an item.

If that is the case then it would appear Hamilton drew more of a response than Ronaldo.

Odintcova said last year: “Ronaldo wrote to me. It was a long time ago. He wrote, ‘Hi, how are you?’

“I deleted the message and didn’t reply.”

The Portuguese superstar should not be too disheartened though. Odintcova said she gets bombarded with messages from sports stars and never opens them.

She said: “I often receive messages from professional athletes, especially from European footballers.

“I don’t even remember these names. I just see, ‘Oh, one more message from some player’.

“I don’t even open them.”

This article first appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission