The Austrian GP qualifying did not fail to provide the thrills. Q3 saw both the Mercedes cars go off. First, it was Lewis Hamilton, and soon after, teammate George Russell followed him into the walls. However, the major issue was not the crash itself. It was the crowd’s cheers as the seven-time world champion put an end to his own qualifying.

At that point, Hamilton had not realized this. However, speaking to Motorsport.com, he said, “to hear it afterwards, you know, I don’t agree or condone any of that no matter what.” 

He further posed the question to the fans, “A driver could have been in hospital. And you’re going to cheer that? I mean, it’s just mind-blowing that people will do that, just knowing how dangerous our sport is. And I’m grateful that I wasn’t in hospital, and I wasn’t heavily injured, but you should never cheer someone’s downfall or someone’s injury or crash.“

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While Toto Wolff has come out and slammed the crowd for their antics, Max Verstappen also spoke out against the crowd’s actions.

Max Verstappen stands in support of Lewis Hamilton after the crowd’s misdemeanor at the Austrian GP

Q3 was not pleasant for Lewis Hamilton or George Russell, with the duo crashing out one after the other. However, Hamilton’s crash hurt just that little bit extra as the crowd cheered when he hit the walls.

Since then, Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, and Lewis Hamilton have slammed their actions. Max Verstappen also condemned the behavior and said, “They are not real F1 fans. They can’t really enjoy what’s really going on at the moment.”

The 2021 F1 world champion added, “There are now a lot of great drivers who can really compete against each other. The supporters who do that don’t really like the sport.“ (quotes translated by Google)

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While Verstappen led the sprint race from start to finish and gave his fans a real reason to cheer on Saturday, Hamilton was not as lucky as he finished in P8. However, there still might be hope for the Mercedes driver to salvage a decent result from the Austrian GP on Sunday.