Nelson Piquet fined for using racist and homophobic language about Lewis Hamilton

Nelson Piquet used racist and homophobic language when referring to Lewis Hamilton in two interviews in 2021; a Brazilian court has fined the Brazilian after charges were brought by four human rights groups

Nelson Piquet has been fined $953,050 (£778,846) by a Brazilian court in moral damages for racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton,

During an interview in November 2021, the three-time Formula 1 champion used a racial slur referring to Hamilton when commenting on the Mercedes driver’s British Grand Prix crash with Max Verstappen.

Hamilton called for action to change”archaic mentalitiesafter footage of the interview surfaced on social media last June.

Picket, 70 years old, apologized to the British driver and said his comments were mistranslated. Piquet’s daughter, Kelly, is Verstappen’s partner.

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Sky F1’s Jenson Button, Martin Brundle and Karun Chandhok have condemned the racist language used by Nelson Piquet towards Lewis Hamilton

In another clip that emerged later, Piquet used racist and homophobic language against Hamilton in a podcast interview, describing how the British F1 driver blew out the 2016 championship to Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton, who received honorary Brazilian citizenship last June, is the sport’s only black driver.

The charges were brought by four human rights groupsincluding Brazil’s National LGBT+ Alliance, who wanted Piquet to pay $1.9m (£1.5m) for alleged moral damages.

In his ruling, Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo said the amount of compensation was given “in the sense that one must not only appreciate the remedial function of civil liability but also (and perhaps primarily) the function punitive so that, as a society, we can one day be free from the pernicious acts of racism and homophobia”.