Soon emerged a fan, who also happened to be an attendee at the gala, claiming that Lewis Hamilton gave him his award and left. Nihad Nesirli, whose X (formerly Twitter) account has now been deleted, revealed on social media that he took the third-place trophy home with him, posting a picture of the same. However, Mercedes soon issued a statement for the media, refuting the claims of Nesirli that Lewis Hamilton purposefully left the trophy at the FIA ceremony as a form of protest.
“Immediately after leaving the stage, and as has been done at previous prizegivings, Lewis accepted the offer from officials for the trophy to be sent on to the team and therefore left it in their care. We can confirm he did not give the trophy to anyone ‘as a gift’ as has been speculated.”
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Before deleting his account, Nihad Nesirli posted on X, “I am disappointed to see messages written to me like thief or something. All I want to say I didn’t steal anything from anywhere. This is just a misunderstanding. Lewis Hamilton put the award on the table. I asked him if I could take the prize. He said to me, yes, you can take the prize. And I thought he gifted me the award. He mistakenly thought I was the FIA official in charge of the award.”