Lewis Hamilton may not be the Formula 1 World Champion in 2021 but he came out of Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with his head held high.
In the F1 finale, the Mercedes driver led by around 11 seconds inside the final 10 laps.
But a freak series of events meant that Hamilton and Max Verstappen would have a one-lap race to decide the title.
Verstappen had the fresher tyres and Hamilton had no answer for the Dutchman.
It was controversial, to say the least.
To go from almost certainly winning the Drivers’ Championship to losing it in a crazy scenario must have been tough to take.
Fans waited for Hamilton’s reaction after the race. They were expecting him to be absolutely fuming at seeing his rival beat him in those circumstances. The post-race interview was going to be box office.
Instead, the Brit gave an incredibly classy response immediately afterwards.
"Firstly, big congratulations to Max and to his team," the Mercedes driver said.
"But I'm so proud of my own team and we gave it absolutely everything. I've felt great in the car the last couple of months. We'll see what happens next year."
What a true champion.
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It’s something we’ve seen throughout this season from Hamilton.
He’s developed into a role model, speaking out about serious matters and behaving in a dignified manner off the track.
An element of that has been the pre-race t-shirts Hamilton has been wearing throughout this season with an important message on it.
But what fans may not have realised is that each t-shirt was a line in a poem in collaboration with George The Poet.
Hamilton revealed as much in an Instagram post in October when he wrote: "Each race weekend, I've been wearing a line of the poem on a tee designed by a rising artist of colour. Keep your eyes out for the full poem coming together across the remaining tees of the season."
And now, the entire poem has been revealed.
Lewis Hamilton's poem in full
Thanks to a user on Reddit, the poem reads:
“When we will change?
It's okay to listen
It's okay to question our way of living
Racial inequality hides in plain sight
We breathe the same air, let's fight the same fight
Let's work together
Let's go the distance
Let's show compassion
Let's show persistence
We are in control of our own existence
Build or destroy, we all know the difference
We've waited patiently to have this conversation
We are no longer waiting
In the name of justice we raise our voices
We learn, we grow, we make our choices
Let's choose respect
Across the world the youth connect
A small change can have a huge effect
Let's excel together
We'll share this world forever
The path ahead is a long, winding course
In the race for equality, commitment is the driving force."
22 races. 22 t-shirts. One beautiful poem to fight racism.
He may not be the World Champion but Hamilton really is the King.