Lewis Hamilton leads drivers to take the knee before Austrian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton hoped for success on and off the track with his anti-racism initiative. He finished 4th and six drivers stood.

Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and other F1 drivers take the knee on the grid in support of the Black Lives Matter movement ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. Picture: Getty Images.

Six Formula 1 drivers refused to take the knee despite Lewis Hamilton’s urgings for the entire grid to show solidarity for racial equality, before the start of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Some of the sport’s biggest names, such as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stood instead, as Hamilton and other drivers including Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo knelt before the playing of the Austrian national anthem.

This was the first F1 race of the season after the Melbourne Grand Prix was cancelled two days before the start because of coronavirus.

Hamilton, who was pictured earlier in the weekend wearing a heavy chain and padlock around his neck in a reference to slavery, wore a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, while the other drivers wore T-shirts saying “End Racism’’.

The support of Black Lives Matter has been a controversial one in Britain because the local chapter of the movement has tweeted anti-Jewish comments.

Some drivers remained standing as Lewis Hamilton led other drivers in taking the knee. Picture: Getty Images.

For several weeks Hamilton - the only black F1 world champion in the history of the sport - had been pressuring his rivals to speak out about racism. His team, Mercedes changed the livery of their cars from silver to black for the rest of this season.

Hamilton wrote: “I know who you are and I see you,” in a social media post two weeks ago. Then, after the drivers’ meeting on Friday where the drivers failed to come to an agreement about taking the knee, Hamilton said: “I just described that silence is complicit and there is still silence in some cases.”

Also on Friday, Ricciardo said: “We’re not going to try and put anyone in jeopardy, and we’ll do what we feel comfortable with. No one is going to be judged or criticised if they don’t stand there in a certain way or take a knee.

“The intention is for us to support it, and we’ll probably show that as a unit and then if a few of us choose to do something extra then that will be the case.”

Leclerc and Verstappen were joined by Kimi Raikkonen, Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi in standing behind those who knelt.

Hamilton’s support of taking the knee is a recent development. In 2017 he decided not to make the same gesture at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, despite being asked if he was going to support Colin Kaepernick’s highlighting of police brutality and racism.

Hamilton finished fourth in Sunday’s race in Austria, after being penalised five seconds for a collision with Alex Albon, of Red Bull. Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas won from pole position with LeClerc and Lando Norris also on the podium.

Ricciardo was one of the first withdrawals suffering overheating of his engine.