Lewis Hamilton has said he would sleep in his car if he found a huge spider lurking in his hotel room. The comment came after F1 rival Oliver Bearman was forced to switch accommodation at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend due to an enormous arachnid.
Hamilton claims he would have left the room immediately. "I would have been sleeping in the car!" Hamilton laughed. "Oh my god, that changes everything. What?! I've been coming for 20 years, I didn't know that."
Bearman's 2am encounter
Bearman was speaking at a fan event in Sepang when he explained how his pre-race preparation in Malaysia was disrupted by an uninvited guest. "I got woken up at 2am with a spider next to my head," Bearman explained, as he stood alongside teammate Esteban Ocon, 30, and Ferrari duo Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, 28.
"I swear! I swear! I texted my travel team. I was like, 'Guys, I'm moving. I'm not staying here.'"
Size of the arachnid
When asked to elaborate on the encounter, the young Brit revealed the size of the spider. "I heard him, kind of walking up to me. I opened my eyes, and he was right there," Bearman added. "It was like the size of my palm! And then I hit him away, I put the torch on, and I couldn't find him. So when I moved to my new hotel, I haven't opened my suitcase yet because I'm scared he's in there."
Leclerc reacted with open-mouthed disbelief, saying: "No way!"
Huntsman spider likely culprit
It is suggested that Bearman likely encountered a Huntsman spider. A harmless yet huge species, common in South-East Asia. While non-lethal to humans, they rely on scurrying across walls, floors and ceilings. An uncomfortable sight to wake up to at 2am.
