Ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has praised the Brazilian government, who heavily fined banned F1 Champion Nelson Piquet.
Piquet was found guilty of having used racist and homophobic language whilst discussing the Mercedes driver, something which once discovered, saw the four-time World Champion banned from the F1 paddock.
Since the incident, Piquet has been fined five million Brazilian reals ($953,050), following his appearance in court last week.
Piquet has previously tried to apologise to Hamilton for saying what he did, with the Brazilian believing that he was mistranslated by the media.
READ: Red Bull clearly miss ‘friend to animals’ Sebastian Vettel
Hamilton is incredibly pleased to have seen the Brazilian government do a “pretty amazing” job in dealing with the Piquet case, with the 38-year-old believing that Brazil have shown that “racism and homophobia is not acceptable”.
“I still believe that we generally shouldn’t be giving people that are just full of hate a platform,” Hamilton told reporters in Melbourne.
“I’d like to acknowledge the Brazil government, I think it’s pretty amazing what they’ve done in holding someone accountable, showing people that that is not tolerated.
“Racism and homophobia is not acceptable, and there is no place for it within our society. So I love that they’ve shown that they stand for something.”
Hamilton was, of course, awarded honorary Brazilian citizenship last year prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, with the British driver having certainly been shown endless love by the nation’s people.
With the incident having now been dealt with, Hamilton can fully focus on the task at hand this weekend.
The 103-time race winner will be hoping for a considerably better weekend in Australia than he had in Saudi Arabia, where he struggled with the W14 all weekend.
READ: Nikita Mazepin’s father linked to new Formula 1 team
Albert Park has in the past been a good venue for the Stevenage-born driver, with him having claimed two victories and seven podiums.
He could only manage fourth at the circuit last season, though, with George Russell having claimed his first podium for Mercedes after finishing third.
A podium for either driver is likely a big ask this weekend given that Red Bull and Aston Martin are expected to be strong, meaning Mercedes could simply be battling Ferrari for a place in the top five.