Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes teammates have been robbed at gunpoint ahead of the Formula One race in Brazil in an incident the world champion said had left them “shaken”.
The sportsman tweeted soon after midday on Saturday that some of his team were “held up at gun point [sic]” after they were leaving the circuit in Sao Paulo on Friday night.
He said gun shots were fired and one person had a weapon held to their head in an incident that was, “so upsetting to hear”.
Mercedes confirmed valuables were taken from the team but said “everyone was unharmed”.
In a later tweet Hamilton lamented the level of danger surrounding the event saying, “this happens every single year here”, and called on F1 teams to “do more” to protect those involved in the sport.
Mercedes-AMG F1 replied to the tweet thread saying it works with “specialist security advisors and train our personnel in case incidents like this occur”.
The team added: “But last night has shown there is even more we can do - as a team and as a sport.”
Hold-ups are a known risk for teams in Sao Paulo and around the Interlagos circuit and police escorts are used for drivers travelling to and form their hotels.
In 2010 Jenson Button was the victim of an attempted robbery and in Mexico last year a Mercedes team member was robbed while travelling by car from the airport to his hotel.