Sick Spanish Racists Attack Lewis Hamilton, Again

Lewis Hamilton has, once again, become a target for Spanish racists in the buildup to the season finale in Brazil.

A controversial website in Spain has once again had thousands of racist messages posted on its site, all targeting the 23-year-old Hamilton. The racism threatens to overshadow this weekend's race and could cause some unrest in the young Brit's mind.

The website, called Pincha la Rueda de Hamilton, which translates as "Burst Hamilton's Tyre," contains a mock-up of the Interlagos circuit that visitors, over 20,000 at the time of writing, are invited to drop imaginary nails, screws, and porcupines onto.

A notice on the site reads: "Hamilton can't finish the race. We have to stop him however we can.

"All you have to do is choose a spike, place it where you want on the circuit, and hope he suffers a historic puncture."

On exiting the website, an automated pop-up message tells visitors: "We hope Hamilton punctures, thanks to your help."

One message on the site, from a man calling himself "Carrillo," says, "Half-breed, kill yourself in your car."

Another, from "Alberto," says, "I hope you run over your dad in the first pit stop, Hamilton."

Upon receiving the news, the FIA investigated the site and was disgusted to see some of its "putrid comments," to which its response has been to issue a strongly-worded statement of denunciation.

Earlier this year, the FIA instigated its "EveryRace" campaign to draw attention to racism in motor racing and to fight it. The campaign was started after Hamilton had been the target of racism and abuse whilst testing at the start of the 2008 season.

An organisation spokesman today said, "The FIA's position is very clear—discrimination and prejudice can have no place in sport or in society. Everyone in our sport will join us in condemning these abusive and hateful comments."

A spokesman for McLaren added, "McLaren was one of the earliest supporters of the FIA's 'EveryRace' campaign, and we support that campaign still. We've seen today's statement from an FIA spokesman, and we can only echo it."

The abuse comes after Hamilton's contentious run-in with Spain's hero, Fernando Alonso, last season. The two drivers were involved in a serious fall-out at the Hungarian Grand Prix last year, when Alonso threatened team boss Ron Dennis with divulging information to FIA with relation to the spy saga unless he was given the team's No. 1 status.

However, earlier this week, Alonso insisted that he didn't have a grudge with Hamilton and, in-fact, he had a lot of respect for the 23-year-old saying, "Things are not personal with Lewis. I have said many times I have great respect for Lewis and we do speak together."

Racism in any sport is uncalled-for and unnecessary and must be dealt with in the strongest possible way. In my opinion, the site should not only be shut down, but the WHOIS registrant should be prosecuted in a court of law. Your thoughts?