“I Hope Last Year Was a One Off”: Lewis Hamilton Prays No Fan Abuse Happens at Red Bull’s Home This Year

Sabyasachi Biswas | 02/07/2023
"I Hope Last Year Was a One Off": Lewis Hamilton Prays No Fan Abuse Happens at Red Bull's Home This Year

The Red Bull Ring was in hot waters after the gruesome act of Max Verstappen fans on a Lewis Hamilton fan at last year’s Austrian Grand Prix. A woman who traveled from the Czech Republic to Austria to witness the race reported an incident of sexual harassment by a group of drunk fans.

Apart from that, a few fans also were subjected to homophobic and racial abuse by the local fans. Being the home of Red Bull Racing, this venue certainly sees a huge influx in the number of fans.

With Red Bull and Verstappen getting better than their rivals, the number keeps on increasing every year. However, so far nothing of that sort happened and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton expects everything to go down well.

Furthermore, it is reported that F1 and the governing authority beefed up security ahead of the race. Most importantly, they also banned alcohol, which acted as a catalyst in last year’s incident.

Lewis Hamilton hopes no repetition from last year

As Formula 1 has arrived at Spielberg for the ninth race of the season, Hamilton hopes there will be no more repetition of what happened last year.

Speaking of this, the Mercedes star conveyed as per SilverArrows.net, “Especially coming to such a beautiful place, it was definitely sad to hear what happened last year.”

“I do know that Formula 1 has taken action to make some changes here this weekend but I still feel there is work that needs to be done,” further asserted the seven-time world champion.

Hamilton concluded by saying, “I hope last year was a one-off, fingers crossed.” Luckily, nothing major has happened so far except some boo and banter. Another incident that happened was a fan threw a flare, which could have been dangerous as well.

Can Red Bull and Verstappen bring out the perfect weekend?

Max Verstappen has absolutely been dominant through the weekend. With pole positions in both qualification and sprint shootout, and subsequently the Sprint win, the Dutchman is in his usual territory.

Furthermore, Red Bull Ring being the home race of the Milton-Keynes-based team, they, of course, have the home advantage and surreal support.

As things stand, the defending champion is believed to have everything under control, until rain plays the surprising part. All in all, it’ll be interesting to see if the two-time world champion can claim the victory at Spielberg.

Post Edited By: Pritam Priyedarshi
Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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