Lewis Hamilton faces a police charge after his Mercedes road car was impounded by Melbourne police on Thursday evening.
Hamilton is expected to be charged with improper use of a vehicle after what he described as "driving in an over-exuberant manner".
Talking after going fastest in free practice for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, he told the BBC: "I was driving in an over-exuberant manner and, as a result, was stopped by the police.
"What I did was silly, and I want to apologise for it."
Police constable Scott Woodford reported Hamilton's rear wheels were skidding as he accelerated out of Albert Park, where the Grand Prix is held.
A Victoria police spokesman added: "The vehicle was seen to deliberately lose traction and was intercepted by police.
"The driver, a 25-year-old man who resides in Switzerland, was spoken to at the scene and is expected to be charged on summons with improper use of a vehicle.
"The vehicle, a 2010 Mercedes, was impounded for 48 hours and the driver returned to his hotel."
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Re: F1's Hamilton faces police charge
nice publicity for merc amg no doubt
well done Lewis keep up the good work!
Re: F1's Hamilton faces police charge
Re: F1's Hamilton faces police charge
Been caught in the deliberately fishtailing in the UK twice that I can think of and escaped on both occasions with a bit of a bollocking. I also was once caught by a Garda whilst committing the same offence in Dublin in the late 1980s. My punishment was to take him for a spin round the city bypass in my RX7 Turbo.