Ex-Manchester City and Barcelona footballer Sergio Aguero was present on Saturday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to hand Max Verstappen the pole position award, despite the fact he’s supposedly a Lewis Hamilton supporter.
Aguero was seen in the paddock wearing a Manchester City-themed race suit, in what appeared to be a tribute to the club he became a legend at.
The Argentinian famously scored against QPR in the dying seconds of the 2012 season, to secure Manchester City the Premier League title.
In his entire career for the club, he made 275 appearances and scored 184 goals.
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He remains very close to the club, who are owned by the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, billionaire Sheikh Mansour.
Mansour is also part of the Emirati royal family and has ploughed hundreds of millions into Manchester City.
Aguero is known to be a fan of F1 and was seen in the paddock earlier this season at the Miami Grand Prix, which is where he confirmed that he was a “big” Hamilton supporter.
“Very good, I was with Alonso yesterday and he said that the car was very good. But well, I’m a big [Lewis] Hamilton fan, I don’t care, I prefer it to be good for him,” Aguero told DAZN earlier this season in Miami.
Aguero would’ve presumably loved to have handed the Pirelli pole position award to Hamilton, who hasn’t claimed pole since the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this season.
The ex-footballer passed the award to Verstappen with a smile on his face, although he was likely disappointed by the fact that Hamilton could only salvage 11th on the grid at the Yas Marina Circuit.
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For the first time since 2014, Hamilton failed to progress to Q3 in back-to-back races, with him qualifying in the same position he had to settle for at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last weekend.
The Mercedes driver is clearly just wanting to get the season done with, as he was once again considerably slower than George Russell over one-lap.
Russell managed to qualify in fourth for Sunday’s race, meaning he’s the team’s best hope of securing Mercedes second in the Constructors’ Championship.