SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM - Six-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday he would not boycott Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix after a wave of player protests in the United States against the police shooting of a Black Man forced the postponement of sporting events.
The protests spilled over into Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the Women's NBA and tennis as Japan's twice Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka pulled out of a tournament after reaching the semi-finals. "Firstly, I think it's incredible what many out there in the States are doing within their sports all the way down to the people that are hosting, commentators for example," Briton Hamilton, Formula One's first and only Black driver, told reporters via video conference on Thursday.
Hamilton, together with some of the other drivers, has taken a knee, has"Black Lives Matter" written on his race helmet and has launched a commission to push diversity in motorsport.