Hamilton receives online racist abuse after F1 British GP win
Hamilton fought back from a 10-second time penalty to win the British GP for an eighth time after being involved in a controversial first-lap collision with championship rival Max Verstappen.
Having served his time penalty during his pit stop, Hamilton sensationally hunted down and passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with two laps to go to claim his fourth victory of 2021 and delight his 140,000-strong home crowd.
But just hours after his latest victory at Silverstone, Hamilton was subjected to online racist abuse.
Racist comments and monkey emojis were sent in reply to posts celebrating the win across both Hamilton and his Mercedes team’s social media channels on Sunday evening.
Hamilton voiced his support for England footballers Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after they were subjected to a torrent of racist abuse on social media following England’s Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy earlier this month.
The 36-year-old has championed F1’s anti-racism push and takes the knee before every grand prix as part of his fight against discrimination.
Hamilton, who is F1’s only black driver, has established a commission to try and increase the representation of black people in motorsport.
The Hamilton Commission released its findings and recommendations into the lack of diversity in motorsport and F1 last week.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
