BREAKING NEWS: Hamilton tests positive for Covid-19

Lewis Hamilton

BREAKING NEWS: Hamilton tests positive for Covid-19

Seven-time F1 champion misses Sakhir GP

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 1 December 2020 08:38 Updated: 08:54

Lewis Hamilton is out of this weekend's Sakhir Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit after testing positive for Covid-19.

Mercedes confirmed in a statement: "The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team regrets to announce that Lewis Hamilton has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be unable to take part in this weekend's Sakhir GP. "Lewis was tested three times last week and returned a negative result each time, the last of which was on Sunday afternoon at the Bahrain International Circuit as part of the standard race weekend testing programme. "However, he woke up on Monday morning with mild symptoms and was informed at the same time that a contact prior to arrival in Bahrain had subsequently tested positive. Lewis therefore took a further test and returned a positive result. This has since been confirmed by a retest. "Lewis is now isolating in accordance with COVID-19 protocols and public health authority guidelines in Bahrain. Apart from mild symptoms, he is otherwise fit and well, and the entire team sends him its very best wishes for a swift recovery. "We will announce our replacement driver plans for this weekend in due course."

Hamilton becomes the latest high-profile casualty in F1 of Covid-19, and the third driver after Racing Point's Sergio Perez tested positive earlier in the year and missed the British and 70th Anniversary Grands Prix at Silverstone.

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Perez's team-mate Lance Stroll, and in turn team-owning father Lawrence, also later in the season tested positive.

It is also the second occasion Mercedes has been involved in a case as a number of trackside personnel returned positive results ahead of the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring that forced the team to fly out staff to assist through the weekend.

Most recently, Pirelli boss Mario Isola and Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley also contracted the illness. The latter missed the Bahrain GP and is still in self-isolation.