Lewis Hamilton doesn’t care if you boo him.
The seven-time champ was booed by thousands of fans at the Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday, as Hamilton beat Valtteri Bottas, leaving the qualifying with a Mercedes one-two finish ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, to grab pole position for Sunday’s big race.
Hamilton beat Bottas by 0.315 seconds with the time set from their first runs with neither Mercedes driver improving on their final laps.
“I have never felt so great with the booing,” Hamilton said. “If anything, it just fuels me. So I don’t really mind it.”
“People have a right. It’s sport. People act wild when it’s sport and competition. I don’t take it to heart. I must be doing something right to be up front.”
The race had a large group of Dutch fans there to cheer Verstappen.
“It was an amazing qualifying lap that last one. Amazing team work from everyone this weekend, trying to push the car forward developing constantly. It has been amazing to see everyone rallying together,” continued Hamilton.
“Great having a front row lockout for our team, first time for a long time.”
Verstappen is currently eight points ahead of Hamilton in the season’s championship.
“The whole weekend we have been a bit behind and it showed again in qualifying. Not what we wanted but we are still there in third and will see what we can do.”
Bottas meanwhile condemned the many fans who booed Hamilton.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” the Finn said.
“We are here as athletes to do the best we can in the sport we love. Lewis did an amazing lap at the end and people should question themselves about this behaviour. It’s not right and we don’t want to hear those things.”
“It’s not correct, of course, but as drivers we shouldn’t be disturbed by these sorts of things. It is not nice but it shouldn’t influence any of us,” said Verstappen.
All the action is streaming on Shahid VIP, the premium streaming service of regional media giant MBC in the Middle East.
The subscription based service and leading Arabic-language streaming platform will host the entirety of the 2021 Formula 1 season in full HD.
A subscription to Shahid VIP will set you back AED 19.99 a month in the lowest package, which is around $5 a month.
If you’d rather watch it on TV, there’s a free option as well: Watch it on MBC Action.
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