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4 February 2008
BARCELONA – Lewis Hamilton has been the target of racist abuse from Spanish fans during the current series of tests of his McLaren-Mercedes team at the Barcelona Formula One track, local news reports said on Sunday.
Citing eye-witnesses, the Marca sports daily said that fans from the stands jeered and taunted the Briton on Saturday.
Ramon Pradera, the director of the Circuit de Catalunya track, told fans via the La Vanguardia daily that "no kind of offensive behaviour will be tolerated" and that fans caught taunting Hamilton will be kicked out.
Hamilton is unpopular in Spain because of his rivalry with Spanish hero and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. Both men were at McLaren last year and Alonso claimed that team chief Ron Dennis favoured Hamilton.
Alonso returned to Renault for the 2008 season which starts on 16 March in Australia.
[Copyright dpa 2008]
Subject: Spanish news