A sports website has admitted that a quote it attributed to Helmut Marko which prompted a scathing reaction from Lewis Hamilton was in fact false.
EssentiallySports.com published an article in which Marko labeled Hamilton's campaign against racism and the Mercedes driver's support for the 'Black Lives Matter' movement "a distraction".
The six-time world champion was quick to react to the dubious story, criticizing Marko on social media and admitting to being offended by the asserted comments. Except that Marko's so-called quote was picked up by Essentially Sports from a Twitter parody account!
The website issued late on Wednesday a formal apology to Helmut Marko, and explained its blunder.
"Earlier today we published an article containing quotes attributed to Dr Helmut Marko," it said.
"The quotes attributed to him were incorrect. The source of the information was not ‘RTL’ and instead a parody Twitter account.
"It was wrong for us to publish the news story without first establishing the veracity of the information. We sincerely apologise to Dr Helmut Marko and to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing."
Hamilton's 'stories' post on Instagram aimed at Marko has since disappeared.
But just as reporters should verify their sources before echoing unusual news or quotes, perhaps drivers should also conduct their due diligence before taking a prominent F1 figure to the woodshed!
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