Lewis Hamilton has said his nose piercing which prompted his summons to the Singapore Grand Prix stewards was back in place due to an ongoing infection which had created a blister of blood and pus.
“I’m not trying to make a statement by handing it over,” he explains to reporters when asked why he was summoned.
“Basically, I’ve had my jewelry and my nose piercing for years. And obviously we had all this fuss at the beginning of the year, at the time, it was like welded, so it doesn’t really matter. is not removed like that.”
“They gave me at the time, for many races, a waiver until I found a solution. I went to have it removed, I tried to find a solution, I removed it. But since then it just keeps getting infected because of that. I just kept getting infected. And I got a blister of blood and then. It was disgusting. My nose just hurt enough.”
“The last two weeks it started to heal. And the doctors asked me to keep it. That’s all I told the stewards before qualifying.”
“It’s crazy that we have to talk about such innocuous things when I’m risking my life in an F1 next door. Anyway, at this point I don’t really care what they’re going to say. I really don’t know if they’re going to accept the explanation. I have a doctor’s letter, I’ve done my best.”
“Let’s hope they’ll be reasonable. The Stewards should be there to keep us safe, the most important thing, but it’s not about safety.”
Let Lewis rest assured, a few minutes after his statement, the stewards closed the incident without further action. “by accepting the doctor’s letter requesting an exemption”.
The FIA are not losing their minds, however, and fined Mercedes 25,000 euros for failing to declare that Hamilton was again wearing his piercing.