During the 1982 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Nelson Piquet, driving for Brabham, came to lap Eliseo Salazar in his ATS. The incident resulted in a crash that saw a physical fight initiated by Piquet. The man who never shied away from expressing himself physically or verbally recently got embroiled in a racial abuse row where he used inappropriate language against the 7x champion Lewis Hamilton. This saw Piquet being handed a $950K penalty. While it seemed that the troubles were over for now, the three-time champion has now landed in another scandal.
It is rather poetic to think that the troubles of the Brazilian driver have the same entity as the troubles of the adopted Brazilian driver. Lewis Hamilton has been fighting with the FIA over the unreasonable jewelry ban and as it stands, jewelry is what will get Piquet into a lot of trouble this time around. Piquet has been a very vocal supporter of ex-Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro. And according to a report by Globo, a Brazilian outlet, the ex-F1 champ has done him some illegal favors.
As per the report, a shed on Piquet’s farm was used by Bolsonaro to stash jewels gifted to him by the Saudi government while still in office in 2019. Brazilian race car driver has always favored the ex-President as, after the election of Lula de Silva, Nelson was seen calling him out in a rather unparliamentary language.
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While the troubles don’t seem to stop coming Nelson’s way, Lewis Hamilton applauded the course of justice taken by his second homeland.
Lewis Hamilton appreciates the verdict against Nelson Piquet
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A video of Nelson Piquet resurfaced last year where he was seen calling Lews using the prohibited N-word. The 3x champion was perhaps referring to Lewis and his almost son-in-law, Max Verstappen, crashing into each other. Brazilian authorities, following up on the racial insensitivity, took cognizance of the matter and handed a $950 K fine to Nelson.
Lauding the judgment in an interview in Melbourne on Thursday, Hamilton said, “I think back when it happened I made comments on it. I think I still believe that we generally shouldn’t be giving people that are just full of hate a platform. 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.”
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Do you think Nelson Piquet will be able to come out of the said dark cloud of a scandal involving government authorities? Or will he be penalized?