Sutil: I tried to apologise

Adrian Sutil insists he did all he could to apologise to the Lotus F1 co-owner Eric Lux after the incident between the pair in a Chinese night club last year.

Speaking in a Munich court on the first day of a hearing into the incident, the former Force India driver insisted he had apologised on more than one occasion to Lux about what happened and had offered to support a charity project in Africa.

"I did everything to try to settle this row," Sutil said according to a report on Reuters. "I am really sorry, extremely sorry. I never wanted for this to happen."

Lux however insisted that he wasn't prepared to accept the apology that had been offered.

"A phone call is not enough," he said.

Sutil, who could face a suspended sentence if found guilty, is without a drive for 2012 after losing his Force India race seat to Nico Hulkenberg.