Lewis Hamilton issues powerful response to Nelson Piquet’s racial slur

Lewis Hamilton has responded to racial abuse from former Formula 1 world champion Nelson Piquet by posting a series of powerful messages online.

The seven-time world champion is the most successful driver in the history of F1, but has fought against horrific racial abuse throughout his racing career from bigoted fans and senior figures in the sport.

Piquet used a word in Portuguese which translates into English as the vile ‘n-word’ racial slur, in an interview recorded last November but only released publicly on Brazilian television on Monday night.

The 69-year-old was discussing the incident between Hamilton and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen at last year’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where the pair duked for the lead into Copse corner and Verstappen crashed out into the barriers at high speed.

Hamilton was blamed for the incident by Piquet, whose daughter Kelly has been dating Verstappen for a number of years, before he launched into a vile tirade including disgraceful racist language.

Both Formula 1 and Hamilton’s Mercedes team condemned Piquet’s comments.

‘Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society,’ F1 said in a statement released on Tuesday.

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‘Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect. His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.’

Mercedes, meanwhile, backed up their driver in a statement of their own.

We condemn in the strongest terms any use