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Hill urges Dutch fans at Zandvoort to 'be nice to Lewis'

Damon Hill has pleaded with Dutch fans not to boo Lewis Hamilton when Formula 1 returns to Zandvoort later this season.

Damon Hill is urgring Dutch fans not to boo Lewis Hamilton when Formula 1 returns to Netherlands next month. The sport returns to Zandvoort, which has been thoroughly updated since the last time Formula 1 raced there in 1985. With home hero Max Verstappen battling Lewis Hamilton for the world title, the 1996 World Champion is hopeful that Hamilton isn't shown any ill will from the home crowd. "Dutch fans, be nice to Lewis, will you?" Hill said on the F1 Nation podcast. "Because he's doing what he's good at, and it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be good. Because we've got a lot of listeners in Holland, who listen to us. "They're good sports. 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?" In conversation with journalist Tom Clarkson, Hill admitted to being confused by the booing for Hamilton in Hungary when he was speaking during interviews, considering the cheering when he was on track. "When he was racing, and he was making his way through the field and got up to third, there were cheers, you could hear the cheers in the crowd," Hill pointed out. "So I don't know what's happening there." Clarkson believed that the booing was from a small minority of the crowd, but that their placement at the Hungaroring meant they were particularly easy to hear. "I don't think it was malicious, it was just that directly in front of parc ferme and the podium was the orange army," Clarkson said. "They had their own grandstand, and it was orange. So anything they said or did were what Lewis could hear more than anything else when he was in 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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