Hamilton crashed in the final session of qualifying
Red Bull fans cheered on as they watched Lewis Hamilton crash out of the final qualifying session ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Most of the fans in attendance were there to support Dutch driver Max Verstappen, a close rival of Hamilton’s, and were overjoyed to see him collide into the barrier.
Hamilton suffered a loss of traction on turn seven which caused his Mercedes to shunt off the track and onto the gravel before hitting the barrier.
The seven-time world champion suffered heavy damage to his car and the incident cause the race to be red flagged immediately as the debris was cleared from the side of the circuit.
Hamilton was checked on by doctors at the scene of the crash straightaway and the 37-year-old appeared to be fine as he safely got out of the vehicle on his own accord.
BREAKING NEWS 🚨: Red Bull fans cheered as Lewis Hamilton crashed out of final Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix pic.twitter.com/oTHLdcf2cc
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 8, 2022
Footage moments later showed the Brit arriving into the medical paddock for precautionary checks. Speaking to the rest of the Mercedes team on the radio, he said: “Damn, I am so sorry guys. I’m so sorry to damage the car.”
Mercedes teammate George Russell was also involved in a crash just 10 minutes after the session had been restarted, leading to a second red flag incident of the day.
Verstappen was booed during British Grand Prix
Hamilton’s crash follows the week after he condemned fans for booing long-standing rival Verstappen during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend.
The reigning driver’s world champion was booed during his second qualifying session while at Hamilton’s home race and the Mercedes driver insisted that fans should ‘do better than that.’
He said: “I think we are better than that.
“I would say we don’t need to do booing, but we have got such great fans and our sporting fans, they feel emotions, ups and downs, but I definitely don’t agree with booing.
“I don’t think we need to do that. It doesn’t make any difference when you boo someone either, they have already made the mistakes or whatever it is.
“But I really do appreciate the support I have had here. I don’t know, maybe some of them are still feeling the pain from last year still. Either way, I don’t agree.”
Related links:
- Nelson Piquet used homophobic language against Lewis Hamilton, new report claims
- British GP: Terrifying fan footage shows Zhou F1 horror crash
- Silverstone: Zhou Guanyu involved in horrific crash as British GP red flagged
