Lewis Hamilton hands champagne to Justin Bieber after Monaco win
The first person Lewis Hamilton handed his celebratory champagne bottle to after winning the Monaco Grand Prix wasn’t anyone from his team.
Instead, he handed the bottle to Justin Bieber.
The Biebs was in attendance during Sunday’s Formula 1 race and celebrated with the three-time F1 champion in victory lane after Hamilton won the race thanks to a great strategy call – and an executional misfire by Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull team.
Bieber wasn’t the only celebrity in attendance. The Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh was there wearing a Mercedes hat (Hamilton drives for Mercedes) and Hamilton Snapchatted a video of Bosh going down a giant inflatable waterslide from a yacht into the Mediterranean sea on Saturday. The Heat’s Dwyane Wade was shown in victory lane with actress Gabrielle Union too. Patrick Dempsey was in attendance, as well as Manchester United’s Michael Carrick and others.
If even just a few of the celebrities at the race attend Hamilton’s victory celebration, it’ll be a party for the ages.
Hamilton started third but took over the lead thanks to a decision to wait as long as possible to pit. The race started as rain fell and F1 officials decided to start the race behind the safety car for the first time in Monaco history because the conditions were so soaked.
The rain stopped and the track started to dry out after the safety car pulled into pit lane. Most teams went from wet tires to intermediate-treaded ones, but Hamilton stayed out as long as possible on the wet tires.
The decision meant he pitted for slicks instead of intermediates as the track was finally dry enough to try to run without any grooves in the tires.
Ricciardo, who pitted once more than Hamilton, was pressuring Hamilton while Hamilton limped to the end of his stint on the wet tires and was in position to take over the race lead after Hamilton’s pit stop. But when Ricciardo came into the pits after Hamilton did to get slick tires for himself, his team was not ready.
Ricciardo pulled into his pit stall without any new tires available. The team was still gathering them from the garage. The lost seconds on the stop meant Ricciardo came out of the pits behind Hamilton and he was never able to get past.
It’s Hamilton’s first win of the season and teammate Nico Rosberg, who won the first four races of the year, finished seventh. Hamilton and Rosberg collided on the first lap while racing for the lead two weeks ago in Spain and Rosberg now leads Hamilton by 24 points in the standings.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
