Lewis Hamilton's Emotional Arsenal Title Victory
Lewis Hamilton has driven through some of the most dramatic afternoons in sport, yet it was a night in north London — and a draw in Manchester — that finally made him cry.
Sitting in Montreal ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver confessed Arsenal’s Premier League title triumph had hit him harder than he expected.
“I shed a tear, to be honest,” he said, the smile giving away how much it meant.
Hamilton’s childhood club finally delivers
Arsenal’s 22-year wait ended on Tuesday, not at the Emirates but via a television screen, when Manchester City were held to a 1-1 draw by Bournemouth. Confirmation, at last, that the title was heading back to the red half of north London.
For Hamilton, a long-time Arsenal supporter, it dragged him straight back to Stevenage.
“I remember being five years old, playing football around the corner in Stevenage. I was the only Black kid in the area, and everyone supported West Ham, Tottenham, or Manchester United,” he recalled.
The allegiance came from closer to home.
“She gave me a little dig in the arm and said, ‘You have to support Arsenal,’” he said of his sister. “We had a laugh about that the other day.”
A childhood nudge, a lifetime of waiting, finally rewarded the week he rolled into Canada.
Gasly flies the PSG flag before Champions League clash
Not everyone in the paddock shared his joy.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly jumped straight in with a rival view, happy to stir the pot with a Parisian twist before next week’s Champions League showdown between Arsenal and Paris St Germain.
“I’m glad we started talking about real stuff,” he joked, eager to move the conversation fully onto football.
Gasly, a proud PSG fan, arrives in Montreal on the back of another domestic coronation. The French champions wrapped up a fifth successive Ligue 1 title last week with a 2-0 win away at nearest challengers Lens.
He expects a spectacle when PSG meet Arsenal in Europe and made his loyalties crystal clear.
“I’ll obviously be rooting for PSG, and hopefully they can bring in a second Champions League,” he said. No hedging, no caveats.
Perez plotting a World Cup dash
Down the pitlane, the football talk shifted from club glory to national pride.
Cadillac’s Sergio Perez has already pencilled in one of the most ambitious mid-season detours on the grid. The Mexican plans to fly back from Europe during the campaign to watch his country at the upcoming World Cup, with games scheduled in his hometown of Guadalajara.
“I literally have to come just for the game and then go back to Europe. We will make it happen,” Perez said.
The schedule sounds brutal. He doesn’t care. A World Cup on home soil is non-negotiable.
“It’s a World Cup at home. Anything can happen,” he added, hopeful but realistic about Mexico’s chances.
Antonelli torn between Brazil and Messi
At the sharp end of the championship, Kimi Antonelli faces a different kind of dilemma: who to support when your own nation isn’t there.
With Italy absent from the tournament, the Mercedes driver admitted he is still weighing up his World Cup allegiance, though two names keep pulling him in the same direction.
“I do really like Brazil, for example, the way they play the game,” he said. The romance of the yellow shirt still travels.
“But again, I’m also cheering for Messi, one of my favourite players when I was little, and also I got to meet him in Miami.”
For Antonelli, it is a strange limbo — a World Cup without the Azzurri.
“Italy is not in it, unfortunately. So we’re going to wait another four years, maybe,” he said. “It’s a disaster, but it’s okay.”
On track this weekend, they will fight under different flags and for different points. Off it, the paddock is already split along footballing lines — Arsenal and PSG, Brazil and Messi, Mexico and a home World Cup — proof that even in the heart of F1 country, the game with the round ball still finds a way to take pole position.
