Lewis Hamilton’s bid to become Formula One champion has been soured by a Spanish Web site targeting the McLaren driver with vitriol and racist abuse.
The Web site, called Pincha la Rueda de Hamilton (Burst Hamilton’s Tire), invites visitors to place a virtual nail on the track at Interlagos, the setting for tomorrow’s title showdown with Felipe Massa in the Brazil Grand Prix.
The site carries a message board directing abuse at the 23-year-old Briton, who only needs to finish in the top five to claim the title.
Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, and McLaren jointly condemned those who had posted the comments.
An FIA spokesman told the Times: “The FIA’s position is very clear — discrimination and prejudice can have no place in sport or in society. Everyone in our sport will join us in condemning these abusive and hateful comments.”
In February, Hamilton was subjected to racial abuse during testing in Barcelona, where a minority of Spanish fans turned up with their faces blackened.
That triggered the FIA to start its “EveryRace” campaign aimed at driving out racial abuse from motor racing.
Commenting on this latest incident, a spokesman for Hamilton’s team said: “McLaren was one of the earliest supporters of the FIA’s ‘EveryRace’ campaign and we support that campaign still. We’ve seen the statement from an FIA spokesman and we can only echo it.”
The offending Web site, which has attracted over 20,000 visitors, was launched last year when Hamilton was battling with his McLaren teammate, Spanish idol Fernando Alonso, for the title.
If Hamilton succeeds in claiming the title tomorrow he will become the youngest world champion in Formula One history and the first driver of Afro-Caribbean descent to lift the title.
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