Hill makes plea to Verstappen’s Orange Army

1996 Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill has asked Max Verstappen’s fans, the ‘Orange Army’, to give better treatment to the Dutchman’s title rival Lewis Hamilton.

This comes on the back of Hamilton being heavily booed after securing pole position at the Hungaroring last month by grandstands which were largely filled with Verstappen fans.

With the Dutch Grand Prix returning for the first time since 1985 next month, Hill has requested a little more respect for seven-time world champion Hamilton before F1 reaches the Netherlands.

“Dutch fans, be nice to Lewis, will you?” said Hill on the F1 Nation podcast.

“Because he’s doing what he’s good at, and it’s going be fun.

“It’s going to be good. Because we’ve got a lot of listeners in Holland, who listen to us.

“They’re good sports, the Dutch. It’ll be great to have a Dutch Grand Prix, the first-ever Dutch Grand Prix for how many years.”

Host of the podcast and British motorsport journalist Tom Clarkson also added his thoughts on the Hungary incident.

“I don’t think it was malicious, it was just that directly in front of parc ferme and the podium was the Orange Army,” he said.

“They had their own grandstand, and it was orange. So anything they said or did was what Lewis could hear more than anything else when he was in that bit of the pit lane.

“As I said, I don’t think it was malicious. I think it was just nonsense, really, and just a bit disappointing.”

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