{"id":149440,"date":"2021-10-25T03:23:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T03:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=149440"},"modified":"2021-10-25T06:57:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T06:57:35","slug":"nba-legend-hijacks-awkward-f1-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=149440","title":{"rendered":"NBA legend hijacks 'awkward' F1 podium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaquille O'Neal's appearance<\/a> on the podium at the US Formula One grand prix<\/a> has almost overshadowed the race itself, with the NBA legend dwarfing world champion Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Standing at 216cm tall, O'Neal was taller than Hamilton, despite the fact the Mercedes driver was standing on the second step of the podium.<\/p>\n

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The four-time NBA champion had arrived in the pit-lane in an open-top car to present the trophy, and had to duck to make his way into the garage and up onto the podium.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/autosportlive\/status\/1452377672030605316?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/laurencomitor\/status\/1452377358271492100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Hamilton's height is listed as 174cm, meaning he's giving away 42cm to O'Neal. Hamilton's official weight is recorded at 73kg, O'Neal is believed to be double that at around 147kg.<\/p>\n

It was perhaps fortunate for all concerned that AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, who stands at just 157cm, didn't finish in the top three.<\/p>\n

In slightly awkward scenes, O'Neal found himself standing between world championship rivals Hamilton and Max Verstappen<\/a> as the Dutch national anthem played to mark the Red Bull driver's victory.<\/a><\/p>\n

Normally the person presenting the trophy would only appear after the anthems had been played.<\/p>\n

\"Shaquille\"NBAhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/laurencomitor\/status\/1452378418667036683?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1452401397820018693<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1452344240793653251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Verstappen's win in Texas extended his world championship lead to 12 points with five races remaining.<\/p>\n

"Congratulations to Max, he did a great job today. It was such a tough race," Hamilton said. "Got a good start and gave it absolutely everything, but at the end of the day, they just had the upper hand this weekend.<\/p>\n

"I don't know what we could have done differently. I'll sit down and talk with the team afterwards. I think the team did a great job today, and it was what we had.<\/p>\n

"We're going to at least the next two tracks which are very strong circuits for Red Bull, so it's going to be tough for sure."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaquille O'Neal's appearance on the podium at the US Formula One grand prix has almost overshadowed the race itself, with the NBA legend dwarfing world […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149440"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149443,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149440\/revisions\/149443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}