Mortifying moment Lewis Hamilton confronted by Richard | UK News

“We shall all be watching. All the best, mate. Good luck,” Richard concluded. As the video ended, Lewis appeared visibly baffled by the gesture and in a mortifying moment the athlete turned to the group and raised his hand in confusion.

When requested if he had any response to Richard, the seven-time world champion admitted: “I’ve never met him before. I don’t really know him.”

In the awkward moment, Lewis burst into laughter and explained: “I’ve seen him on TV a couple of times. So it’s very strange, I was not expecting to see him of all people. Why did you choose him?

“I do not know, it might have been anybody. But it is good, the message was very nice. Thank you so a lot. I grew up watching his show. So, just caught me by shock.”

While the crowd also laughed, other fans rushed to social media to remind Lewis that he had previously appeared on Top Gear and surely met Richard alongside his co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May.

In true Jeremy fashion, the Clarkson’s Farm star broke his silence about the interaction and responded to a fan, who posted: “Never met him?? Lewis was actually on Top Gear twice.”

The 65-year-old responded: “In Lewis’s defence, James and Richard never met the company.”

With the 41-year-old starting in fourth place for Saturday’s sprint race, Hamilton said he was “actually happy” but warned that there is “a lot of work to do” in order to hunt down the leading pack.

“I’m actually happy with the session, the engineers did a unbelievable job to flip the car around, it felt great. But we’re shedding a lot of time on the straights,” he said.