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A case filed against Nelson Piquet for passing racial and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton has been annulled by a Brazilian magistrate. These comments surfaced last season before the 2022 F1 British GP. The comments were made by Piquet in November 2021 and in the comments, the former F1 world champion had used objectionable language for Lewis.
The statements featured racial and homophobic slurs that led to a lot of outrage against the Brazilian as he was barred from the paddock soon after. There was also a case filed against him in Brazil for the comments that he had made. Almost a year later, a Brazilian magistrate annulled the case claiming that there was no demonstration of hate speech against Lewis Hamilton by Piquet.
According to Brazilian outlet Metropoles, the judge of the case, Aiston Henrique de Sousa, stated the language was “debauched” but did not use hate speech. There were two different accounts on which the case was registered. The first being the racial remark and the second being the homophobic one. Annuling the case, the magistrate stated:
"There is no demonstration of hate speech. The use of colloquial [informal] language, even if it is inspired by subtle or involuntary racism, even if it is inappropriate, does not bring with it sufficient gravity and relevance to characterize collective damage.”
For the homophobic remark:
"The debauchery carried out by the defendant could also have been the object of sexual practice between a man and a woman, so that one cannot extract from this the occurrence of hate speech against homosexuals.”
Nelson Piquet had issued an apology to Lewis Hamilton
After the comments surfaced on the internet, Nelson Piquet issued an apology to Lewis Hamilton, saying that the remark was ill-thought-out. He did, however, clarify that the word was colloquially used in Brazilian Portuguese and does not have racial undertones. He said:
"What I said was ill-thought-out, and I make no defence for it. But I will clarify that the term used is one that has widely and historically been used colloquially in Brazilian Portuguese as a synonym for 'guy' or 'person' and was never intended to offend. I would never use the word I have been accused of in some translations."
He added:
"I strongly condemn any suggestion that the word was used by me with the aim of belittling a driver because of his skin colour. I apologise wholeheartedly to anyone that was affected, including Lewis, who is an incredible driver, but the translation in some media that is now circulating on social media is not correct. Discrimination has no place in F1 or society and I am happy to clarify my thoughts in that respect."
The racial and homophobic remarks against Lewis Hamilton were widely criticized by everyone when they surfaced and the annulment might raise a few eyebrows as well.
